


My Magic Education Isn't Going As Expected!

by Eviscaerian



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Deviates From Canon, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Slow Build, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-09-19 07:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 22,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9427088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eviscaerian/pseuds/Eviscaerian
Summary: Diana just wanted to apologize to Akko, not become friends with her, and much less fall in love.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing just after episode 2 aired so please keep in mind that this may not follow the canon.

It had been three days since the incident with the Jennifer Memorial Tree, and it had been three days since Diana had last interacted with Akko. Diana wanted to apologize to Akko, but she wasn’t able to on account of Hanna and Barbera constantly flanking her. And so, Diana gave up. She could have quite easily caused Akko permanent damage because she hadn’t listened to her, and after waiting three days to tell her, why would Akko forgive her? 

Diana made her way to the library, brushing off girls who tried to make conversation with her. It had just gone half past four and it was a beautiful day outside so the library was practically deserted, but Diana wasn’t satisfied. She quickly grabbed several books on things they had covered in their lessons and looked for the most deserted area she could find. Upon finally settling on a table in the corner mostly hidden by bookcases Diana picked up a couple more books and had them levitate with a quickly flick of her wand. 

When Diana reached the table she froze. Akko was sat there, happily shuffling her Shiny Chariot cards. Diana must have not been able to see her because of a bookshelf obscuring part of the table, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was not being seen by Akko. 

Diana quietly turned around, making sure Akko hadn’t seen her... and immediately collided with someone.

“Sucy, are you okay?” Lotte asked Sucy, who was rubbing her nose but still standing.

“I’m fine, we should be much more concerned with the school hero” Sucy’s voice was dripping with more venom than her cockatraice feather and her expression was cold and unforgiving.

Diana got back on her feet and after dusting herself off replied “I’m hardly the school hero for just that”

“You’re quite right, considering all you did was shock Akko”

It is needless to say that a nasty argument would have began there and then, had Akko not gotten involved.

“Now now, it’s not like Diana meant to hit me with her spell, and besides, I got to use Shiny Rod again”

“Akko-”

“And I’m fine now, so what does it matter?”

Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to win in an argument with Akko, Sucy chose to let the subject go and took the seat opposite Akko’s, putting down her various books on poisons and potions beside her. Lotte quickly moved past Diana and took the seat next to Sucy.

Diana didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know when she would be able to talk to Akko without Hanna and Barbera around, but at the same time it would be embarrassing to say it with Yanson and Manbavaran listening.

“Are you just gonna stand around Diana?”

“What Sucy meant to say was ‘do you want to join us?’” Lotte clarified, shooting her friend a look telling her to be civil.

Akko quickly pulled the chair next to her out and indicated for Diana to sit there. Once Diana was seated Akko pulled out her cards and shuffled them quickly before dealing them. 

Lotte and Sucy examined their cards and whispered strategies together. Akko quickly looked over her cards and grinned before showing them to Diana and whispering “I’ve got a good hand, this should be over in two or three turns”

Sure enough, Akko easily won the game, crushing Sucy and Lotte without hesitation. After shuffling the cards Akko dealt them again, but placed hers in between her and Diana. 

“Do you want to learn how to play?”

“Please say yes, me and Lotte might actually have a chance of winning then”

“Sucy!”

As soon as Diana asked for Akko to teach her how to play she was swept up in a convoluted explanation of how the game worked, what the cards did, in what situations a card would be able to do something that wasn’t written on it, and the best way to counter an opponent. 

When dinner time eventually rolled around Diana had began to grasp the fundamentals of the game and almost didn’t want to stop playing. Almost. 

Diana left the books she had collected earlier with the librarian so she could get them after dinner, but when she turned around Diana almost jumped out of her skin; Akko was there, with a grin on her face.

“Akko, you almost scared the life out of me”

“Sorry sorry, anyway, thanks for playing with us today, it was really fun”

As Akko turned to go Diana grabbed her sleeve. “Akko, I’m” Diana took a deep breath in and hoped for the best “I’m sorry for what I did to you when the tree’s roots went out of control, I-I should have listened to you but I didn’t and hurt you as a result, and then I didn’t tell everyone that you were the one who knew about the chrysalises and took the credit for making the Jennifer Memorial Tree better” as Diana recounted all she had done wrong she felt even guiltier about it, and it must have shown because Akko gently pulled her into a hug. Diana felt her worries disappear as Akko held her there, and wished she could stay like that for as long as she wanted.

The moment was ruined by Sucy shouting that Akko would miss dinner if she stayed in the library any longer, and so the two broke apart. Akko ran off to catch up to her friends leaving Diana alone, but happier than she had been in ages.


	2. Waiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko is resting up in the nurse's office, and there are several people thinking about her

"Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Mm"

Lotte and Sucy were sat outside the nurse's office, and had been for half an hour. In that time Lotte had gone through almost every single hypothetical situation in which Akko would be injured beyond recovery, and each time Sucy had reassured her that Akko would be fine. Sucy knew there was no way the happy-go-lucky Akko would be hurt too badly from her fall, and it was only a matter of time before she would be right as rain, but no matter how many times she told Lotte that it just wasn't enough to satisfy her.

“Do you think Akko will be mad that we didn’t catch her, or that we let her try even though she didn’t know how to fly?”

“Lotte, you know Akko isn’t the kind of person to blame her problems on others, if anything she’s probably just fallen asleep”

“Sucy-”

“Think about it, riding that broom won’t have been easy to do, in fact holding on and trying to manoeuvre it must have been exhausting. Couple that with the fact Akko didn’t even ride a broom until today, and it’s understandable that she’d be sleeping for a while after that fall. Just relax Lotte, Akko’s going to be fine”

Sucy gently squeezed Lotte’s hand to reassure her, and it seemed to work as Lotte didn’t ask about any more hypothetical situations where Akko was badly hurt from her fall.

* * *

 

Ever since the relay had finished, Diana had been thinking of Akko, she wasn't sure why but she just couldn't get the girl out of her head. It was only after her conversation with Miss Ursula that Diana realized what had happened; for the first time in years Diana had truly enjoyed herself. Diana had spent so long being the top dog at the academy that she had forgotten what it felt like to be properly challenged, but when Akko had gotten back on her broom after falling off and fought until the last minute to beat her, Diana had felt amazing.   In that moment all Diana could think about was beating Akko. She forgot about the letter she needed to write to her family that night, she forgot about what books she would need to read in order to stay ahead of her classes, all she could think of was the adrenaline rush and how, for the first time in ages, she had actually had fun. 

After a brief internal debate Diana eventually decided to go see Akko to make sure that she was okay, and promptly left for the nurse's office. On her way there, Diana thought of what she could say to Akko once she got there, and eventually decided to tell Akko she was worried about her missing class as a result of her injuries, and that she definitely had no ulterior motive for visiting her, no ulterior motive what so ever.  


* * *

"Do you think if I made my potion a bit stronger we could have won?"

"Potion?"

"The one I used to hold down most of the other competitors at the start of the race"

"Sucy!"

"What? Can you honestly tell me that you don't want that trophy?"

"That's not the point-"

"It's also not against the rules...technically" 

Lotte raised an eyebrow at Sucy but didn't say anything, instead choosing to rest her head on her friend's shoulder.

"How long do you think Akko will sleep for?"

"I don't know, probably a couple of hours"

Sucy put her arm around Lotte and zoned out, enjoying the feeling of her friend nuzzled against her. Neither of them wanted to talk about anything in particular, and so they sat together in silence, enjoying the peaceful ambience they had created.

* * *

Down the hallway, Diana silently retreated; she would have to go see Akko another time. She could tell that if she were to make her presence known she would ruin the atmosphere, and so Diana coolly withdrew to her dorm room.

 

 


	3. A blossoming love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotte is worried about something Sucy knows

“Lotte, it’s three in the morning you know” Lotte felt her heart jump in her chest, Sucy had found her. Oh god, **Sucy had found her.** Her mouth was dry, her heart was faster than the beat in an EDM song, there was no way that she would be able to explain what she was doing to Sucy. “You should probably go to sleep now if you want to be able to get through the morning lessons” And with that Sucy hopped down and went back to her bed. 

Lotte stayed completely still for a minute, trying to process what had happened. Sucy might not have seen what she was doing if she had just woken up in the middle of the night and seen the light coming from Lotte’s bed. Of course, if Sucy had been awake for a while and had actually seen what Lotte had been reading her life would be over.

The next day Lotte felt like she was treading on eggshells around Sucy, desparately trying to find out if she remembered what had happened the previous night, or if Sucy had forgotten about it already. Of course, Lotte wanted to avoid mentioning the incident directly as she feared that if Sucy had forgotten about it then mentioning it would make her remember exactly what she had seen.

It was only when they were about to go to bed that Sucy brought it up when she whispered “Don’t stay up so late tonight Lotte, we have a test tomorrow”. Lotte spent the next two hours trying to calm herself.

On Sunday, when they had no lessons Lotte decided that she would try to confront Sucy; that decision led to her running around the library for ten minutes trying to find her, before eventually stumbling across her in the darkest corner of the library.

“Ah, hello Lotte” Sucy greeted without taking her eyes off the book she was reading.

“Sucy, um, you know a couple of nights ago when you…” Lotte tried to think of words that would not imply she had been doing something wrong, but Sucy nodded, removing the need for her to say any more. “Did you see what I was reading?”

Sucy marked where in the book she was before closing it and putting it to one side. 

“Arthur x Edgar fanfiction, the barely decent kind”

“I’m begging you, please don’t tell anyone!”

“Everyone has their own hobbies, I’m not going to make fun of you for yours”

“R-really?”

“Yes. But” Sucy stood up started to walk towards Lotte “Who would have thought that the pure and gentle Lotte would be into BL?”

“The most recent story arc in  _ Nightfall  _ started to expand on their relationship and hinted that they wanted to be more than just friends, I couldn’t wait for the next edition so I” Lotte started to speak in a much quieter voice “I just wanted to see them together, but before I knew it the writer made them lovers”

“And you were so invested you couldn’t stop reading?”

“Yes” Lotte bowed her head slightly, blushing. Lotte looked adorable and Sucy wanted to cuddle her, but she held back and settled for stroking Lotte’s hair.

“What are you getting embarassed for? You didn’t do anything wrong”

“But isn’t it weird? Two people of the same gender being in love with each other”

Sucy could feel her heart start to beat faster, Lotte was so cute she couldn’t hold herself back any longer; she gently placed her hand next to Lotte’s head, trapping her between her body and the bookcase behind her.

“Do you want to decide that for yourself?” Sucy knew she was pushing her luck, but she couldn’t resist Lotte.

“Sucy, was that a confession?” Sucy was rudely brought back to reality by Lotte’s question and immediately took a couple of steps backwards, before thinking about what she had just said; why had she tried to push her luck? What if Lotte was creeped out by what she had said? Had she ruined their friendship? The only way to try and not 

“I...I guess it was”

“Well then, please take care of me” 

In all of her life Sucy had never felt the way she felt at that moment; she felt calm and relaxed, but happier than she had ever been. She looked at Lotte and knew that she was feeling something very similar. Sucy stepped forward again and pulled Lotte into a tight hug, enjoying the feeling of Lotte's warm body pressed against hers. Lotte on the other hand loved the way Sucy had wrapped her arms around her, and cuddled back.

"So, I guess we're going out now"

"Mmm"

"It would probably be more comfortable "

"Mmm"

Sucy led Lotte to the table she had been working at and pulled her up onto her lap, before reaching around her to get the book she had been reading earlier. Lotte felt Sucy rest her head on her shoulder and closed her eyes, savoring the feelings of love she was getting from her.

A couple of hours later Sucy was reading, with Lotte's head in her lap. Sucy was reading much slower than she usually did because every so often she would look down at her girlfriend and spend a minute or two thinking about just how cute she was, before reluctantly going back to her book for a while. 

Lotte moaned lightly and sleepily opened her eyes, before readjusting herself and putting both of her arms around Sucy’s chest. They didn’t say anything to each other, they didn’t need to, and when Sucy lowered her head to kiss Lotte’s cheek they wished that the moment could last forever.

Hanna ducked back around the bookcase, shocked. Was it alright for two girls to be doing things like that? She went back to her room quickly, pretending that the book she was looking for had been taken out already, but all throughout the evening she couldn't get the image of Sucy kissing Lotte out of her mind. She would have to ask Barbara if it was weird for two girls to kiss. Tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter was so short, I had to rewrite it twice because I wasn't happy with it, next week the focus will be on Akko and Diana again, with a bit of Hanna and Barbara


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanna finally talks to Barbara. Akko gripes about Diana

“Urgh, it’s always ‘Diana this! Diana that! Wow Diana you knew Dragonese! Wow Diana, you set a new record in the school broom relay! Wow Diana, you caught a nuke with your bare hands!”

“Actually that was Belle, Akko” Lotte interjected

“Who cares, she’ll probably do it some day!” Akko shot back.

“You say that Akko, but you’re the one who’s been talking about her for the past hour”

Akko was caught off guard by Sucy’s revelation and crossed her arms, huffing.

“Well whatever, it’s not like she’s that great”

“Then why are you talking about her?”

“N-no reason”

Akko went back to her book and started to make more notes on magical history, flipping between the huge tome to one side of her and the textbook in front of her.

* * *

 

Diana had gone to the library, leaving Hanna and Barbara alone in their room. Hanna was meant to be studying, but she hadn't written anything down in over an hour, instead thinking of what she had seen yesterday; Sucy had kissed Lotte in the library. Just remembering it was enough to make her blush bright red, but after she thought of Lotte and Sucy she would think of Barbara for some reason.

Barbara was her best friend, and was certainly attractive, but Hanna didn't know why her lips suddenly seemed to be so hypnotic. They had never seemed to be anything special in the past but now...now they looked so beautiful Hanna couldn't look at them for fear of being caught staring.

* * *

"I can't believe that you can manage to fail something as simple as wearing your uniform correctly, come here" Diana sighed.

Akko reluctantly turned around and let Diana's skillful fingers undo and then properly tie her bow, annoyed that the queen of the school found it necessary to make a deal out of something as insignificant as that.

"Are you done yet?"

"Would you rather I point out everything you're doing wrong?" 

Diana peered over Akko to see what she had been doing, and looked genuinely surprised to see that she had been working.

"Well?"

"It is surprising that you are studying, I thought the comics here would be more your speed"

"Why you-"

"Also, Madame Feu was born in 789, not 739"

Diana calmly left Akko fuming in the library as she had found the books she needed, and started to go back to her room.

* * *

 

"So you mix all of the hemlock in with the ground bat bones and you should create a potion of perseverance"

"Wow, you know loads about this Hanna"

"It's not all that impressive"

"You're one of the only people in our class who understands this though, I'd say that's pretty impressive"

Hanna was stuck, she wanted to ask Barbara about what she had seen, but if she did that Barbara might think she was weird and their friendship could be damaged. To hell with the consequences, she was going to do it.

"Hey Barbara"

"Hmm?"

"What do you think about two girls...going kissy kissy?"

"Kissy...kissy? You mean kissing?"

"Yeah"

Barbara had known something was off with Hanna, but her having a crush was completely unexpected; as her friend, Barbara knew that she should try to help her as much as possible.

"Well, if you really love someone then I don't think their gender should matter, and kissing the person you love is natural"

"So it's okay for two girls to...you know"

Hanna was blushing hard, and Barbara was beginning to feel a little embarrassed herself.

"Well...Can you see yourself kissing a girl?"

"I can't see myself kissing you! Or a girl who's not you!"

"I never said anything about kissing me though"

"It was just a slip of the tongue, there's no way I'd imagine k-kissing you, it'd be weird to think of you in that way!"

"I know right, it  _would_ be weird for us to think about each other that way"

* * *

"I can't believe her, there was no rule about the way my ribbon was tied after all!"

"Just let it go Akko, you're being too loud" Sucy murmured, resting her head in Lotte's lap.

"She specifically did it to humiliate me even though I hadn't done anything wrong!"

"Your ribbon was kind of scruffy before though Akko" Lotte pointed out.

"Yeah, so?"

"It looks nice now doesn't it? Maybe Diana was taking care of you"

Akko huffed and went back to her book, reading that Madame Feu was indeed born in 789, not 739.

* * *

 

Hanna was breathing heavily, her face was red. Barbara's heart was beating fast, too fast. 

"Hanna..."

Hanna had pushed Barbara down onto her bed and held her hands in place with her own, but had no idea what to do next.

"Barbara...Can we try kissing...Just to see how weird it is?"

Barbara looked away from Hanna, blushing.

"I don't want to kiss to see how weird it is, I want to kiss you because" Barbara barely whispered the end of her sentence "I like you"

Hanna brought her lips down on to Barbara's and for the briefest of moments they were one. Almost immediately afterwards Barbara pulled Hanna down for seconds and they kissed much longer, much more passionately, as they had forgotten about all their worries.

Their embrace broke apart when they heard Diana approaching from down the hall and they scrambled to get themselves looking like nothing had happened between them. That proved rather difficult as the memories of their kisses were still fresh in their minds and they had both wanted to spend more time confirming their love.

When Diana entered the room, she either didn't notice, or at least pretended not to notice that Barbara's ribbon was undone, and they were sitting much closer to each other than they usually did, not to mention holding hands.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

Diana Cavendish snapped awake, covered in her own cold sweat. For a minute she stayed in bed trying to remind herself that she had only been dreaming, but wasn’t able to forget just how real her nightmare had felt.

The details of the nightmare were already slipping away but she remembered what had scared her so much; she had killed Atsuko. They had been outside, flying. She had caught Akko’s hand when she fell from her broom; but her fingers had slipped through hers and Akko had fallen to the ground in an unmoving heap. No matter how many healing spells she had used, no matter how much she had cried, and begged Akko to wake up the girl still remained limp and broken.

It was only when Diana had gone to the baths and washed the sweat off her body in a hot bath that she began to feel even remotely better.

When she got back to her room it was almost four in the morning but Diana was already wide awake and unable to get back to sleep. Groaning at how tired she would be later in the day Diana began to strip the damn sheets off her bed and sat down at the desk to study, determined to be productive with her time.

* * *

 

When Hanna woke up she quickly turned off her alarm clock, yawned and stretched, and swung her legs over the side of her bed before lightly dropping down. Barbara was still sleeping and looked absolutely adorable. Hanna quickly gave her girlfriend a peck on her cheek before sliding into bed with her and cuddling up to her; Barbara found it difficult to get up on cold mornings so Hanna had taken to gently coaxing her out of bed a few minutes before Diana woke up.

After a couple of minutes of cuddling Barbara woke up and pulled Hanna in for a kiss. It wasn't a deep and passionate kiss like the one they had shared a few days earlier, but s simple one on her forehead. Only after kissing Hanna did Barbara notice Diana was already awake and at her desk. The two practically jumped out of bed and got changed in record time, praying that they hadn't been seen.

Fortunately for them Diana had been completely focused on her books and didn't notice her roommates until they informed her that it was time for breakfast. At breakfast Diana sat at the table next to Akko's, not because she was worried about her of course, it was purely by chance, and Diana didn't mean to hear what Akko was talking about, it was just that neither Hanna nor Barbara were especially talkative that morning.

Akko was bright and cheerful like she was every other day, but one thing she said stuck in Diana's mind 'After classes Amanda's going to show me how to perform tricks on my broom'. Amanda O'Neil. That menace to society was going to take Akko on a broom? Was the dream Diana had really just a dream, or was it a warning? Amanda was reckless on her broom when she was showing off, and Akko had never properly rode a broom in her life, it was a deathtrap; right there and then Diana made her mind up to stop Akko from hurting herself by any means necessary.

* * *

 

It was five minutes until the end of the last class of the day and Diana still hadn't figured out a way to get Akko to not join Amanda after classes. The fact they weren't exactly on friendly terms didn't help either as it would be even harder for Diana to approach her, and it wasn't like Atsuko would listen to her anyway, if anything she might be more inclined to do something if Diana didn't approve of it.

It was only when Professor Badcock held her back for a couple of minutes at the end of class that Diana knew what to do; she managed to intercept Akko in the courtyard and passed her the note she had just scribbled.

"Akko, Professor Badcock asked me to give this to you" 

"What's it about?"

"I do not know, I am not in the habit of sticking my nose in affairs that do not concern me"

Akko huffed and quickly read the note before exclaiming "What the heck! Why does Professor Badcock want me to help the kitchen staff out right now?"

"My guess would be your performance in our most recent test, which you flunked spectacularly"

"Yeah, but I had already had plans with Amanda"

"If you prolong your punishment you will only make it worse on yourself"

Akko began to dejectedly trudge towards the kitchens and Diana watched her for a couple of minutes to make sure Akko wouldn't double back as soon as she left. Satisfied, Diana left to go to her dorm room, unaware she was being watched from above by a very annoyed witch.

* * *

Barely a minute in to Diana's second study session of the day and her door was thrown open by Akko, who looked like she could stare down the most ferocious of monsters without trying.

"You lied to me Diana!"

"Pardon?"

"Professor Badcock never wrote me a note telling me to help out in the kitchens!"

"Akko she-"

"Amanda told me everything! She saw you write the note yourself"

Impossible, Diana had written the note in the classroom. There was no way Amanda would have been able to see her was if...she was flying.

Diana's tone changed immediately; she abandoned her calm, aloof aura and sounded almost desperate when she begged Akko "Please Akko, listen to me, I had a reason for doing that, I'm sorry, I-"

"I don't care! Don't try and talk to me again Diana, I hate you!"

And with that Akko left and slammed the door behind her, leaving a shocked and dismayed Diana alone once more.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

“It’s unbelievable, unbelievable I tell you. One hundred and ten percent unbelievable!” An awkward silence followed until Akko finally asked in a much calmer voice “Aren’t you going to ask what happened?”

“Knowing you it could be anything, why bother guessing?”

“Very funny Sucy, but this is serious. Diana told me Professor Badcock wrote me a note telling me that I needed to help out in the kitchens until dinner because of my test score, but Amanda saw Diana write that note herself!”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Huh?”

“If you don’t actually have the note no-one will believe you, and even if you did manage to prove it what would that do? Diana’s record is spotless and she comes from a family with deep ties to the school, it’s not like anything would happen to her”

“So what, I should just let this go and act like she did nothing?”

"Akko, you should be patient, wait until you need something from her and then bring it up, like if you need the answers to a test, or you need to sneak into town and get someone to cover for you"

"You want me to blackmail Diana"

"Call it what you want"

"I don't want to do that though, I don't want her to do things like that" Akko seemed much less energetic and almost yearning for something, Sucy noticed the change in her tone and decided to drop the conversation.

* * *

 

For Diana dinner was an especially awkward affair; before it began Akko had stuck her tongue out at her, Sucy would occasionally glance over at her for a few seconds before whispering something to Lotte and the green team had sat right opposite Diana.

When they were halfway through dinner Amanda had leaned across the table and loudly declared "Y'know, I don't exactly appreciate what you did earlier"

Diana took the bait and replied "Oh? And why might that be?"

"Oh and why might that be" Amanda mimicked "You damn well know what you did!"

"Indeed I do, however, it appears that you do not since you find it necessary to cause this amount of disturbance"

By then a small crowd had began to gather around the table, curious about what was happening between Diana and Amanda.

"If what you did was so good why don't you tell everyone here what exactly it was?"

"Very well. Earlier today I saved Atsuko Kagari from certain death at the hands of a lunatic with no respect for the safety or well being of others, and for some reason you do not appreciate that"

Amanda stood up, seething in anger. For a minute it seemed like the situation was going to escalate, but then Amanda very calmly turned around and left the cafeteria. Diana went back to her pie, victorious.

* * *

 

The next day, no matter how much Diana tried to get Akko’s attention she found herself being ignored; when she asked Akko to walk faster in a crowded hallway she could have sworn the girl slowed down, in potions half the class would have had to be taken to the infirmary if Akko had added mamba venom to her potion right after Diana told her to put it down (Diana noticed that Sucy never put the venom back after taking it from Akko), and at the end of the day Diana found that all of the books she had been meaning to read were taken from the library, a literal block of books had been removed from one of the shelves and it was all the witch could do to stop herself from kicking down Akko’s door and demanding an explanation.

When she knocked at the door she was greeted by Lotte, who looked like she had been expecting her.

“Lotte Yanson, may I talk to Akko Kagari?”

“She says she’s not here”

“Then why is she at her desk?”

“I...I don’t know what she’s doing, it would be best for you to talk to her tomorrow”

“Unfortunately, I am unable to. I follow a strict timetable and I cannot let anything interfere with it, please step aside so I can find out why she is acting so childishly”

“Look, you’ll just make things worse if you try to talk to her now-”

Diana forced her way past Lotte and managed to take three steps into the room before she saw Sucy glaring at her.  Trying her hardest not to blow a fuse Diana turned to Sucy and asked through gritted teeth “May I borrow your roommate for a minute?”

“Not Lotte”

“No, the other one”

Sucy shrugged “Go ahead”

Diana practically lifted Akko off the ground and hauled her outside, slamming the door behind her.

“Sucy!”

“What?”

“You saw how angry Diana was, why did you let her take Akko?”

“I wanted to be with you, besides they both have things they want to say to each other, why stop them from doing it?”

* * *

 

"Atsuko Kagari, could you kindly explain your behavior?"

"...No"

"Would you please stop being so childish!”

"Right, because the great Diana Cavendish is never childish"

"Exactly"

"That was sarcasm! Who else but a child would lie to someone like you did?"

"If you would listen to me for two minutes you might actually understand that people do things for non-selfish reasons"

"Oh shut up already!"

Akko pushed Diana away from her and turned to go back to her room; unfortunately for Akko, Diana was caught off balance and grabbed Akko's sleeve as she fell. Akko was brought down with her, and she ended up pinning Diana to the floor. 

Diana felt completely powerless, Akko was both stronger and heavier than her and she looked absolutely furious. Diana tried to move her hands but Akko was holding her wrists down. Weakly, Diana tried to lift her waist to throw the other girl off, but also to no avail. Finally Diana gave in and looked Akko in the eyes, trying to determine what she would do now she had the advantage.

Diana looked adorable, like a timid kitten or puppy meeting it's owner for the first time. Akko could feel the British girl squirming beneath her, vainly trying to shake her loose for a few seconds before giving up.

Neither of the two girls knew what would have happened if they had stayed like that, and they would never find out as Lotte, worried about Akko, stepped out into the corridor and found them in what could only be described as a very compromising situation. Akko dismounted Diana and after a minute left the books she had taken outside her room so Diana could collect them easily.

* * *

"You seemed like you were getting on well with Diana" Sucy snickered as Akko re entered their room.

"Are you okay Akko, Diana didn't do anything to you did she?"

"No, I'm fine"

"I bet she's just surprised Diana actually came to see her in person, but honestly, why would you expect her to just ignore everything you've done today?"

"Why would she expect me to ignore that note she lied about?"

Sensing Sucy wouldn't get anywhere, Lotte decided to try and calm Akko down.

"Diana's been saying that she had a reason for what she did right? Why don't you get her to tell you what it is?"

"Because it's probably something lame like 'You did X' or 'I heard you say Y about me', she's just made it up so it makes her look like she's in the right"

"Akko, you know Diana wouldn't do that. If you want, tomorrow me and Sucy can go with you to find out why she did it, okay?"

"I'm fine"

"Pardon?"

"I can do it by myself" Akko mumbled

* * *

Diana worked late into the night, carefully selecting all the ingredients she needed to make her potion; a phallaceae mushroom, ground toad bones, 10 year old snake oil and one of her hairs. Muttering the incantation Diana flicked her wand and cast the spell on the bubbling cauldron. When it finally cooled she quickly poured the contents into four bottles which she then hid under her bed. It took only a few seconds for her to wash her equipment with magic, and Diana was grateful for that small mercy as it meant she wouldn't have to try and wash them in the bathroom, or sneak into the kitchen.

In bed, Diana thought of what she would have to do the next day, and how tough it would be. The difficulty of her task however, paled in comparison to telling Astuko directly, and so she went to sleep with dreams of flying freely in her head.  

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

Sucy set her and Lotte’s brooms against a tree before placing the picnic basket down next to them while Lotte rolled out a blanket and sat down on it. They were as far away from Luna Nova as they could get while still being able to use magic, and more importantly it was the first proper date they were going on. Sucy put an arm around Lotte and sat down next to her, hugging her tightly. For a while the two sat like that, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the tranquility of the location. Eventually Sucy laid down and Lotte went down with her, resting her head on her girlfriend’s chest while gently holding onto her. Sucy planted a kiss on Lotte's forehead and hugged her back. 

At that moment everything was perfect for Sucy, the sun was warm but at an angle that didn't blind her, there was a soft breeze blowing, and most importantly she was alone with the girl she loved.

* * *

 

It was a beautiful day outside, and Akko was stuck in the library, combing through various books looking for a reference to an obscure ruling for a magical law essay. Akko shut the book she had just skimmed through and sighed, there was nothing there either. Akko pushed her tea away and went to put the book back and look for another one that might have some helpful information.

It was then Diana decided to strike, she quickly added a few drops of the potion she had made the night before to Akko's tea, corrected a couple of names in her essay and left.

"Miss Cavendish, did you find what you wanted?" The librarian asked.

"No, the book I was looking for must have been taken"

"Really, you spent almost an hour looking"

"I got caught up in something"

When Akko got back to her seat she dropped the book down on the desk and sighed, before reaching for her mug .After downing the remaining tea she flipped the book open and read the contents before skipping to chapter 7 and starting to read. Halfway through she began to feel sleepy and when she was finished with the chapter she felt like she had gone a week without sleep. It wouldn't hurt just to shut her eyes for a minute, would it?

* * *

 

"Sucy, say ah"

Sucy obliged and allowed Lotte to feed her a mouthful of enokitake mushrooms. 

"Whoa...They were delicious!"

"Really, I didn't make them any different to the way the school does though"

"Are you sure? They taste so much better though! Maybe...It's because you made them"

"What do you-"

Lotte was cut off by a kiss from Sucy, but she made no attempt to resist and pulled her down with her. 

Sucy couldn't stop thinking about how cute Lotte looked as she blushed from the kisses that were being showered upon her.

When Sucy finally stopped Lotte was so red from embarrassment she looked like had a fever and she had to spend a minute catching her breath before she was able to speak again.

* * *

 

Akko was standing next to the Sorcerer's Stone, at the highest point of Luna Nova; today was the day she would learn to fly. She turned the Shiny Rod into it's broom form and mounted it, looking down at the forest below her. She took a deep breath, she could do it.She mounted Shiny Rod and with a hop, skip and jump she launched herself from the tower.

After a couple of seconds Akko shouted "Tia Freyre" but for some reason Shiny Rod wouldn't respond.

"Tia Freyre! Tia Freyre! Fly god damn it!" Akko screamed falling faster and faster. 

She was suddenly jerked to a halt, and watched as the Shiny Rod continued to fall. Akko looked up and saw Diana had caught her. Diana started to make some remark about how she had been irresponsible but for some reason Akko's hand slipped through hers, and all Diana could do was watch as Akko fell.

When Akko hit the ground she wasn't sure what had happened; for a few seconds she had felt slightly winded, but that sensation soon faded. It was only when Akko realized she couldn't move or speak that panic set in. 

As soon as Diana reached the ground she jumped off her broom and ran over to Akko before drawing her wand and casting a healing spell. It was when the spell did nothing that Diana broke down; she hugged Akko as tight as she could and begged her to come back, she apologized for everything she had said to her in the past and sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

And so Akko was trapped, unable to tell Diana she was okay as the other girl cradled her body and poured her heart out into countless apologies to her for every little thing she had done.

* * *

 

"Hey Sucy, I've been thinking about this for a while but should we tell Akko about...you know?"

"Us?"

"Yeah"

Sucy though for a minute; Akko would probably be happy for them and give them space when they needed it, but on the other hand she would most likely blab about it to other girls and their secret would be out in the open to people who might not take as kindly to it as Akko and the green team, specifically Tweedledee and Tweedledum, or whatever Diana's cronies were called.

"...We should give it some time to find out the best way to tell her, I'm sure she'll be fine with it though"

"It's getting quite late, we should probably be getting back soon"

And so they rolled up their blanket, attached their now empty picnic basket to Sucy's broom, and flew back to Luna Nova.

* * *

Akko opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times; she was back in the library but there were people crowded around her, had she been talking in her sleep?

"She's awake, thank goodness!"

Huh, why was Professor Ursula with her?

"Akko, hey Akko, can you hear me?" Amanda asked

"Yeah, what do you need?"

After a couple of tries Akko managed to lift her head up, and saw that Lotte, Sucy, Professor Ursula and the green team were gathered around her, looking relieved.

"Akko, do you know where you are?"

"I'm in the library right?"

"Yes, do you know what time it is?"

It was about two when Akko had gone to sleep so she guessed "About half two?"

"It's almost four"

"What! But that means I slept for...Almost two hours!"

"You weren't asleep" Sucy said "You were under the influence of a septlock potion"

"Sept...lock?"

"Yeah, someone must have put it in your tea"

"That's impossible, no one came near me the whole time I was in here"

"Constanze found traces of it in your tea though. Akko, did you leave your tea alone for any amount of time while you were studying?"

Akko thought hard. "When I went to get a book or put one back I must have left it alone for a few seconds, but not too long"

A sudden beeping from Constanze's machine interrupted Sucy and everyone rushed over to look at it.

Constanze whispered something to Jasminka who announced "Constanze has analyzed the septlock potion further"

"And?"

"A great flaw of the septlock potion is that it requires the hair of the one who brews it, which means Constanze can find out who made it"

"Well who made it then? Hurry up and tell us"

"Not so fast Akko, the machine can't tell you who the person is from their hair, but it will tell you if the DNA matches that of another hair"

"So basically we have to go through the hair of everyone at Luna Nova to find out who spiked my tea?"

"Not necessarily" Sucy interjected "I have a hunch who might have done this"

* * *

Diana felt a sharp tug at one of her hairs briefly, and when she turned around in annoyance she saw one of Constanze's robots running away as fast as it could. In that moment Diana realized that she had made a mistake, if her DNA was in that potion it could and would be traced back to her. Diana gave chase.

"Recktrett As!"

A small explosion of air narrowly missed the robot as it turned a corner and Diana had to stop herself from cursing. The robot began to gather speed and was able to dodge Diana's shots as she didn't want to risk hitting any of the books.

She skidded around a corner, breathing heavily as she heard a ding from Constanze's machine.

The blue team, green team and Professor Ursula all turned to look at her as Diana fully realized how big a mess she had gotten herself into. 

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

For a few seconds no-one said anything. Then Sucy broke the silence.

“Told you so”

Diana felt her heart sink like a stone, Akko looked completely disgusted with her.

"Well well well, this certainly is a surprise, who would have thought the prim and proper Diana Cavendish would drug a girl's drink because she didn't like her? This would be awful if it got out; the Cavendish family could have their reputation ruined overnight" Amanda drawled, before sarcastically adding "And what a shame that would be"

Diana knew she was right though, if the wider public were to learn of what she had done there would be no way the Cavendish family would be able to live it down, but if the story got twisted she might face more than a severe in-school punishment.

"So, uh, miss Cavendish, why exactly did you spike Akko's drink with septlock potion?"

Diana knew she would have to choose her words carefully.

"...I would rather tell only Akko my reasons"

* * *

 

"Your room is surprisingly clean Akko"

"Thanks for telling me I look like the kind of person who lives like a slob"

Diana decided against telling Akko that wasn't what she meant and went back to thinking about the best way to tell her about her dream; if she simply told Akko that she faked the note from Professor Badcock and spiked her tea with a septlock potion because of a dream she doubted Akko would be very understanding, so she had to find a better way to do so, a way that would make her see eye to eye with her at least.

"Akko, do you know what a premonition is?"

"That's...a kind of ghost, right?"

How on earth had Akko not learned such basic material?

"No, it's a subconscious prediction people can make, those who are particularly good at astronomy or divination are more prone to them, but that is irrelevant for the time being"

"So why did you tell me about them then?"

"Because I had a premonition"

"And?"

"You saw it too, you tried to fly, failed and died"

Akko pondered that for a minute before shouting "How do you know what I dreamed?"

"Akko..." How could anyone be so stupid? "I didn't see your dream, I made you see mine. Since you were being less than cooperative whenever I tried to approach you, I decided to let you experience what I did so you would understand why I didn't want you to go flying with Amanda"

"You were...worried about me?"

"Don't flatter yourself"

"Why do we have to wait outside of our own room? This is stupid" Sucy declared.

"Miss Cavendish did say that she wanted to tell Akko about her reasons for putting the septlock potion in her tea, we should let her do that before judging her"

"Why? She could have caused Akko some serious problems if she had made the slightest mistake in her preparation of the potion. And it's still stupid that we can't go in our own room"

"Aw come on Sucy, it's not that bad" Lotte said, taking Sucy's hand in hers "It'll only take a couple of minutes"

"I guess I can bear it, if you put it that way"

"C'mon you guys at least wait until you're alone before you start flirting" Amanda said, before the green team's presence became completely unwanted.

* * *

 

"Why didn't you just tell me at the time though?"

"I doubt you, and particularly Amanda would have perceived my worry as anything but jealousy and a desire to stop you from having fun"

"Well-"

"And the fact that you didn't know about premonitions until a few minutes ago shows you would have dismissed my concerns as nothing but a silly dream, if you even believed I was telling the truth about that. But now that you know why I did what I did, there is something I have to say to you" Diana took a deep breath "Atsuko, I apologize for lying to you about that note and for putting septlock potion in your tea, I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me"

"I'll forgive you..." Diana's face lit up "If you tell me why you thought that you had to stop me from getting hurt"

"Isn't it obvious? For more than a millennia the Cavendish family had enjoyed strong ties with Luna Nova, if a member of the family were to allow even one student at the academy to come to any harm it would-"

"That's not what you're meant to say!"

"If you would kindly let me finish...I like you" Akko's heart skipped a beat, Diana liked  _ her _ ? "It would be awful if something were to happen to my rival, and so I decided that I had to protect you one way or another. Is that adequate?"

* * *

Diana calmly shut the door to Akko's room behind her and faced the green team, Lotte, Sucy and Professor Ursula confidently.

"Well? What did she say?" asked Amanda.

"If you wish to know please consult her yourself, my work here is done"

After Diana strode away Sucy opened the door to her room and looked visibly surprised; Akko was on her bed with her face buried in her pillow.

"Akko. Hey Akko. Earth to Akko. What just happened?"

"Diana"

Sucy sighed. "What did Diana do?"

"She said she likes me"

"Are you absolutely one hundred percent sure that you didn't mishear her?"

"Yeah"

"Well...What are you going to do about it? Do you like her back?"

"...Dunno"

"I'll leave you to continue whatever you're doing then"

* * *

"Hey Hanna?"

"Yeah"

"It's been a while since we started dating right?"

"Yeah"

"But we haven't done anything since then!"

"Well what do you want to do?"

Barbara was caught off guard by Hanna's question.

"Well, uh, I was thinking about kissing again. Only because we didn't do it that much the first time!"

"I don't exactly remember kissing either so...Let's call this an educational activity, it would be weird for two girls to kiss for no reason, right?"

"Yeah, I definitely don't want to kiss you because I love you or anything"

Hanna gently took Barbara's face in her hands and brushed a few loose strands of hair out of the way of her lips before putting an arm around her and pulling her in close, oh god she looked beautiful. Hanna used her thumb to open her girlfriends mouth, and after a couple of seconds of hesitation she brought their lips together. Suddenly Barbara's eyes shot open in shock as she felt Hanna's tongue invade her mouth. When Hanna eventually pulled away Barbara looked completely exhausted and she almost collapsed on to Hanna's bed.

"Hey, Barbara, are you okay? Barbara? Barbara!"

"I'm...Completely drained. What was that?"

"Apparently it's called a French kiss...Did you not like it?"

"I didn't say that, just warn me if you're going to do it again"

Barbara looked so cute laid on Hanna's bed, blushing.

"I'm going to do it again, prepare yourself"

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

"Diana Cavendish, I challenge you to a duel!" Amanda shouted. The library was even quieter than it had just been.

"A duel?"

"That's what I said, a duel"

Diana and Amanda glared at each other as a few spectators gathered around them.

"At what time and location?"

"The courtyard. Two minutes. Be there"

Amanda strode out coldly, and the girls that didn't go with her crowded around the British witch to see what she would do.

In two minutes both girls were facing off against each other in the courtyard with an eager gaggle of witches watching them.

"Amanda O'Neill, why exactly do you intend to duel me?"

“Why? Because there’s no way I’m letting you get off without punishment for what you did to Akko”

“She already forgave me, you are doing this simply because you dislike me and want an excuse to engage in conflict while appearing to be in the right”

“No, I’m doing this because you think that you and your cronies can go around treating Akko like crap all the time and then, when faced with consequences you think you can just say a few nice words to her and everything’ll be fine”

Diana paused, was that really what she had done? She hadn’t been hurting Akko, had she?

“I do not intend to repeat my actions again, also-”

“That doesn’t change the fact you still did what you did!”

Amanda drew her wand and pointed it at Diana, preparing to fire a spell at her. Diana pulled her wand out as fast as she could and was about to cast a defensive spell when Jasminka and Constanze burst out of the crowd and held Amanda back, at least, Jasminka held Amanda back, Constanze sort of latched onto her arm and tried to pull her down.

Relieved that she wouldn’t have to duel Amanda, Diana put her wand away while Constanze and Jasminka led Amanda away, trying their best to get her to calm down.

* * *

 

"Akko, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while" Lotte took a deep breath "Sucy and I are dating”

“You’re dating? Like you’re in love and stuff?”

“Y-yeah”

“That’s great! You two look really cute together!”

“The reason I wanted to tell you this as soon as possible was because I don’t want you to feel left out, even if me and Sucy are dating I still want us three to be friends, I still want us to be the red team. Is...Is that okay?”

“Yup!”

“Thanks goodness...Do you want to go into town on Sunday, all three of us? I heard that there are going to be some limited edition volumes of the Shiny Chariot manga being sold at the auction hall”

“Really? You have no idea how hard those are to get hold of! Rumor has it that Chariot even wrote parts of them herself. I can’t wait to go, thanks Lotte!”

“It’s fine, there’s actually a bit of Nightfall merch I wanted to check out myself, and Sucy said something about a rare mushroom salesman”

“Rare mushroom salesman? There’s actually a market for that stuff?”

“Evidently”

“Wait...Shit! If I want to be able to go out on Sunday I’ll have to do all my homework today and tomorrow”

Akko ran over to the desk and furiously began writing an essay as Lotte sighed from relief, Akko was happy for her and Sucy, everything was going to be fine.

* * *

 

"Guys...Are you mad?" Amanda asked. Jasminka had her arms around her and Constanze was leaning against her, but neither of them had said a word since they had pulled Amanda away from the duel. "Alright, I'm going to have to guess what I've done then. Was it starting a fight with Diana, was that what made you so mad?" Neither Constanze nor Jasminka responded. Amanda though for a couple of seconds before asking "Was it because I wanted to fly with Akko?"

"Keep going" Constanze murmured.

"Was it...Not spending enough time with you guys?"

Jasminka nodded "Recently we haven't been able to hang out as much, we've felt lonely without you Amanda"

"You guys..." Amanda threw her arms around her teammates and pulled them in close "I promise we'll do something together this weekend, how does that sound?"

"Can we go into town? I heard there's a new cafe opening on Sunday"

"Right, town on Sunday! Anything you want to do Constanze?"

"...Not really, I'm fine just being with you two"

“Aww Constanze you’re so sweet!”

Amanda ruffled the smaller girl’s hair and Jasminka put one arm around her.

“Sweeter than cotton candy”

“Is there anything you want to do on Sunday Amanda?”

“I’ll see if that store has any more weird magical artifacts, Shooting Star was awesome!”

“You stole that though, you’ll be lucky if the guy even lets you in his store anymore”

“...Oh yeah, that might be a problem” Amanda appeared to consider it for a few seconds before hugging Constanze and Jasminka even tighter “That doesn’t matter though, Sunday’s for you guys and I’m not going to let anything ruin it!”

* * *

 

"Hanna, Barbara, would you two be interested in going into town on Sunday?"

“Sure…”

“Is something the matter Hanna? You sounded rather uncertain”

“No, it’s just...You’ve never asked us out like this before, what brought it on?”

“I merely wanted to spend some time with you, is that okay?”

"Of course it's okay! There are a bunch of things we want to show you"

"Like the coffee shop we went to that one time!"

"And the aquarium!"

Diana listened patiently as Hanna and Barbara named all the places they had been and told her what was so good about them. It was only when they had finished and settled down that Barbara asked "Is there anywhere you want to go Diana?"

"I heard something about some rare magic books that were going to be auctioned off, but I want to spend some time with you two"

"Diana..."

"Diana!"

Both of Diana's roommates threw their arms around her pulled her into a three way hug. Diana was surprised but she happily hugged them back after a couple of seconds. They broke apart sooner than Diana would have liked, but she didn't let it show, and instead made a note in her diary to leave Sunday free.

* * *

"Jesus Christ I'm never going to get this done!" Akko shouted as she looked at the mountain of work she had to do.

"How do you even manage to put off this much work? You would have to be actively trying to screw yourself over to achieve this" Sucy snickered.

"It's not funny Sucy!" Akko groaned "How am I going to be able to finish all of this?"

"You won't"

"Thanks for that incredible display of confidence in me"

"I said you wouldn't be able to finish it, pass me that magical law essay"

"Sucy, you're really going to help me?"

"...Well yeah, did it sound like anything else?"

"Thank you so much" Akko hugged Sucy as hard as she could "Is there anything I can do to repay you?" She squealed.

"Get off me"

Lotte chuckled as Sucy pushed Akko away before picking up the assignment and reading it. After Akko went back to her desk Lotte gently slid behind Sucy and kissed her on the cheek.

Sucy spent the best part of two hours working on Akko's essay but she didn't mind, Lotte had wrapped her arms around her and occasionally kissed her. Meanwhile Akko had gone through several pieces of work and decreased the size of the pile of work on her desk quite substantially.

The bell for supper rang soon after Sucy finished Akko's essay and the red team went to the dining hall together, hand in hand.

 


	10. Chapter 10

"Alright, we'll have a blueberry pie, an extra large strawberry milkshake, two regular strawberry milkshakes, a pot of coffee, ten of those toffee cookies, a dozen of the chocolate chip ones, two banoffee pies, and three Knickerbocker glories!" After placing her order Amanda left the shocked cashier and went back to her table, where Constanze and Jasminka were waiting for her. "Okay everyone, I've placed our order, now let's talk about what we're going to do later"

"Why don't we start at the market and take it from there?" Jasminka suggested

"That does sound good" seconded Constanze

"Alright then, let's go to the market and make it up as we go along!"

* * *

 

"It says here that the action for the limited edition Shiny Chariot manga will begin at half three, meaning I have two and a half hours to hang out with you guys!"

"Limited edition Shiny Chariot manga? They really milked the Shiny Chariot name for every penny they could"

"It was limited edition so only her most loyal fans would know about her rise to stardom, there were only thirteen copies of each volume printed and each one was signed by Chariot herself, owning one is the ultimate status symbol among Chariot fans!"

"Well, you'll probably be able to get them for cheap since the ratio of books to fans is thirteen to one"

"That means...Hey! There are more Shiny Chariot fans than me Sucy!"

"Now now, both of you, why don't we go get something to eat? It looks like the new cafe is open"

The trio entered the cafe and got some nice seats in the corner, next to the windows and ordered drinks. Lotte got a pot of coffee with lots of cream and sugar, Akko ordered green tea and Sucy asked for freshly squeezed mushroom juice, earning her a weird look from the cashier.

"This is wonderful!" Lotte declared after drinking her first mug of coffee in one go, before quickly refilling the mug. "Want to try some Sucy?"

"Nah coffee's not really...Actually, may I?" Lotte passed her the cup and Sucy angled it towards the light and rotating it. Eventually she pressed her lips against it and passed it back to Lotte.

"What were you doing Sucy, you didn't drink any of it?"

Sucy grinned and said "It was an indirect kiss" Lotte blushed as Sucy put an arm around her and pulled her closer.

Akko watched them, perplexed. Was being in love really that good?

* * *

 

"It appears the books will be auctioned off at quarter past three, so I can spend about two hours with you. What do you wish to do first?"

"We have to go to the petting zoo!”

“Oh my god, yes!"

Hanna and Barbara took one of Diana's hands each and eagerly led her to the zoo. Diana entered cautiously, unsure of what to expect. Inside the zoo Diana was pleasantly surprised to see a range of animals, from guinea pigs to baby goats, but what caught her attention were the rabbits. One stood out from the rest, a rabbit with fluffy brown fur that Diana found herself drawn to. Seeing that Hanna and Barbara were already playing with the animals of their choice Diana walked over to the rabbits and crouched down, offering her hand to them. The brown rabbit hopped over to it and sniffed Diana's fingers for a couple of seconds. Comfortable that Diana was safe to be around the rabbit nuzzled it's head against her hand and allowed itself to be picked up. Diana wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but settled for gently stroking the rabbit between it's ears.

The blue team spent almost forty minutes at the petting zoo, and when they left Diana had to perform a spell to clean their uniforms of the animal hair that had gotten stuck to them/

* * *

 

"Sucy, don't you think this looks kinda shady?" Akko asked, looking at the large, black carriage that was parked deep within an alleyway.

"Not at all, this is exactly how it's meant to look"

"How can you even tell? This could be any old, black carriage"

"Can you not see the obnoxiously large red mushroom painted on it?"

"...Oh"

Sucy entered the carriage and stayed in there for about five minutes, before emerging with a medium sized cardboard box that she was looking at gleefully.

"What did you get Sucy?" Lotte asked.

Sucy chuckled "You would not believe how lucky I was, it's very sensitive to light so I'll show you when we get back" Sucy burst into full blown laughter as she clutched her package and Lotte and Akko backed away nervously.

* * *

 

"Whoa...Guys you have to look at these!" Amanda shouted to Constanze and Jasminka, pulling out her purse as she did so. Constanze and Jasminka joined Amanda and looked at the glass case that had caught their teammate's attention; inside it were various rings, but among them were three gold rings with a beautiful piece of jade embedded in them.

"They're amazing" Constanze murmured, awestruck.

"I know right, if we all got one we would match and show that the green team has stronger bonds than any other team. How about it?"

Five minutes of haggling later and Amanda had bought the rings for a greatly reduced price. She gently took Jasminka's hand in her's and slid the beautiful piece of jewelry down her ring finger before doing the same to Constanze and herself.

"They're beautiful Amanda...Thank you so much!" Jasminka threw her arms around Amanda and Constanze did the same, trapping Amanda in a three way hug she was more than happy to return.

"Yup, they're beautiful, just like you guys!"

* * *

 

"Huh, is that...Oh god, sorry guys, I gotta go!" Akko shouted as she sped off towards the auction hall.

Lotte and Sucy squinted at the clock tower in the distance. 

"Hey Lotte, doesn't the clock say that it's currently five past three?"

"Yeah, I think so"

"Akko must have misread it then, ah well, it won't hurt her to turn up a few minutes early"

* * *

 

Diana Cavendish strode into the auction hall; she had arrived five minutes early to make sure she could find a good place to sit, but her plan appeared to have failed as there were only a handful of empty chairs scattered around the room, and none of them were in particularly good places. Eventually Diana chose the seat next to the aisle as she would be sitting next to a Luna Nova student and it was probably the most noticeable place available. 

Diana realized how much of a mistake she had made when she saw that the person she had chosen to sit next to was Akko. 

"H-hey Diana, fancy seeing you here"

"Hello Akko, has the bidding for Mystogan's four rare magical ritual books began?"

"No, not yet...Um, when you said you liked me, did you-"

"Hush, the bidding has started"

Akko didn't attempt to press her question any further and watched as Diana entered the bidding at 100000 yen. A few minutes and 2.5 million yen later and Diana was happily watching as her books were neatly tied up in brown paper and then passed to her. Diana took her seat again and placed the books by her feet; satisfied that she had acquired Mystogan's most prized works. She quickly scanned the schedule for anything else that looked like it could be interesting and one thing caught her eye; one of the limited edition Shiny Chariot manga sets was going to be auctioned off after the singing rattlesnake.   It was too good an opportunity to pass up, very few people would be interested in them as well, meaning there would be only a couple of other bidders.

Diana's train of thought crashed and burned when she saw Akko raise her hand.

Of course! How could she be so stupid? Of course Akko would be in the auction hall for the Shiny Chariot manga, she was probably ecstatic to have the chance to own her idol's own manga, it would be horrible for Diana to take that away from her. But at the same time, if someone else outbid Akko then it wouldn't be wrong for her to start bidding, right?

* * *

Lotte and Sucy sat on a bench near the auction hall, waiting for Akko. It had been Lotte's idea, and Sucy had no objections to it, she was slightly interested in whether or not the manga was as good as Akko made it out to be. Lotte tugged on Sucy's sleeve and pointed at something. When Sucy saw it Lotte was treated to thTe sight of Sucy being visibly surprised for the first time; Akko and Diana were walking hand in hand out of the hall, smiling and chatting together. 

"Hey, Lotte...Is that real?"

"I...I think so"

The two could only watch as Akko and Diana walked past them.

On the other side of the road Hanna and Barbara were having a similar reaction as they tried to comprehend why their roommate, the queen of the school, the noble Diana Cavendish was so happy to be holding hands with  _her_. Why was Diana showering the worst student in the year with more affection than she had shown her most loyal supporters?

* * *

It had been almost ten minutes since they had left the auction hall and Diana still hadn't let go of Akko's hand. Akko certainly didn't mind holding hands with Diana, she even kind of liked it, but why hadn't Diana let go already?

"Akko...Akko!" God Diana's voice was nice "Akko, are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine"

"That's good to hear" Diana smiled again, making her look even more beautiful.

"Hey Diana, why did you buy me the Shiny Chariot manga?"

Akko's question threw Diana a bit, but she didn't let it show. "I wanted to properly apologize to you Akko, for everything I've done. The fake note, the potion, all of it"

"But they were really expensive-"

"Money is no issue for the Cavendish family, and besides, I know how much you love Chariot, I couldn't just sit by and let something that means so much to you be snatched from under your nose"

"Diana!" Akko threw her arms around Diana's neck and pulled her into a hug which Diana happily returned.

Diana felt wonderful; Akko was warm, her hair smelled wonderful, and it felt unbelievably good to be shown so much affection. 

"Akko, I love you"

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be gone for just over a week dealing with some family business guys, sorry for the delay in the next chapter. Don't worry though, I won't be idle


	11. Chapter 11

I love you. Those three words had been echoing in Akko’s mind ever since she had arrived back at Luna Nova. What did Diana mean? Did she really love her? Akko buried her head in her pillow; she needed to calm down if she wanted to think about what had happened rationally. 

During the auction Diana had bought her the Shiny Chariot manga. When they left Diana had held Akko’s hand. When Akko hugged her, Diana said those three words: I love you. Diana had then taken her to a nice cafe where she bought her tea and a parfait. 

Oh God. It sounded like a date! Maybe it had even been a date. Wait, if it had been a date then why was she only realizing now? Just how dense was she? 

A sudden knocking at the door interrupted Akko’s train of thought.

“Come in” she shouted hurriedly.

To her surprise Lotte and Sucy walked in. Lotte looked a bit nervous, but for some reason Sucy seemed slightly disappointed.

“Why did you guys knock? It’s our room...And you’ve never done it before, why now?”

“We just wanted to know if you…” Lotte trailed off, looking embarrassed.

“Were busy making out with Diana” Sucy finished. Akko was shocked by her words. Her and Diana making out, that was crazy! After all, Diana was the top student at Luna Nova and from a noble family, there was no way she would do something like that with Akko. But on the other hand, Diana had told Akko she loved her only an hour or two ago and she had returned Akko’s hug...Dream on Akko! Just because they had hugged it didn’t mean Diana would let Akko push her down onto her bed and cover her beautiful face with kisses as they whispered about how much they loved each other.

“Hey, earth to Akko”

“Gah!” Akko snapped away from her delusions “What is it?”

Sucy smiled smugly “You looked like you were enjoying whatever you were thinking about”

“I wasn’t thinking about Diana”

“I never said you were”

“...I know, I just wanted to confirm that”

“Yeah yeah” Sucy sat down on Akko’s bed with Lotte “We just thought you might still be with Diana because you went back with her, I was joking about you two making out”

“So Akko, what did you do with Diana? If you don’t mind me asking” said Lotte.

Akko scratched her head and thought about everything they had done that afternoon. "Well, I got outbid pretty quickly but at the last minute Diana swooped in and got the books. I as feeling a little upset because, y'know, I thought that I had missed my chance to own a set of the limited edition Shiny Chariot manga. But then...Diana grabbed my hand, led me up to the stage and gave the manga once it had been wrapped and bagged. After that Diana said she wanted to go somewhere nicer so we left the hall. I was really grateful for the manga so I gave her a hug and she said she loved me. Then we-"

"Hold on Akko" Sucy interrupted "It feels like you just skipped over something major just then. Diana said she loved you? This is...This is a red letter day! Stop the presses, Diana said something nice!"

"Sucy" Lotte scolded "Do you know what brought that on? Had she inhaled any dangerous fumes or been hit on the head recently?"

"Oh come on guys!" Akko shouted as Sucy started laughing "It's not that weird"

"Akko" Sucy was suddenly deadly serious "Tell me about one time where Diana has actually been nice to you. Properly nice. Not just trying to avoid a punishment nice"

"Look Akko, we don't want to meddle but...Have you considered that Diana might have an ulterior motive? You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth"

* * *

If Diana had the power to undo time she would have used it right there and then to erase everything she had done over the past two hours; it wasn't so much that she had not enjoyed what she had done, on the contrary, she had loved every minute of it. It was Akko she was worried about. More specifically, how what she had done had impacted Akko. Why had she grabbed her hand in the auction hall? Why had she told her she loved her? Why had she taken her to the most upper class establishment she could find and practically forced her to order the most expensive item on the menu? And why had she purposefully dropped her spoon to the ground and refused a replacement so she could share an indirect kiss with Akko when she asked to try her parfait?

Why had she behaved like such an idiot?

It. Just. Made. No. Damn. Sense. 

Diana emphasized each of those words by punching her pillow. Her behavior was unbecoming of a lady of the Cavendish family.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Or rather, two slightly out of sync people knocking on the door.

Diana took a couple of seconds to make sure she was presentable before calling out "Please enter"

Sheepishly, Hanna and Barbara walked in. They both looked like they had something they wanted to say, but Hanna was the only one who spoke. "So uh, you're alone"

"Yes, I am not in the practice of entertaining guests in our room for long periods of time without consulting both of you"

"Sorry, we just thought that since you went back with Akko you might have been, y'know, looking to go somewhere more private"

"I doubt miss Kagari viewed our little excursion as anything more than a polite afternoon out, and hardly this scandalous affair that you are suggesting"

"Hey Diana" Barbara stopped Hanna from saying whatever she was about to "Did you really enjoy going out with me and Hanna?"

"Certainly, I found it most enjoyable thanks to you two. Had I gone alone it would not have occurred to me to go to the petting zoo or the family restaurant, two of my favorite places on our trip" Seeing her answer was not enough to satisfy them Diana asked "Is something the matter?"

"When you were with Akko earlier you looked much happier than when you were with us, you were smiling so naturally and even holding hands with her"

That was it, they were jealous. Diana racked her brains for a good excuse but found none. It appeared she would have to tell the truth. "Hanna, Barbara. You are my two dearest friends so I have decided to tell you why I behaved the way I did. The truth is, I am in love" Actually, telling the truth was a terrible idea. If it got out that she loved Akko there would be terrible consequences for both of them. "In love with..." Diana frantically tried to think of a part of Akko she could use; her lips? Uncharacteristically romantic, and they were cracked and dry. Her eyes? Too sappy. Her butt? Just no. "The little tuft of hair at the back of her head" Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. "Don't you think it's adorable how it bounces every time she takes a step? It's also even softer than the rest of her hair" Were they buying it? "Surely you've seen it's cuteness on display whenever Akko skips?"

Hanna and Barbara exchanged glances.

"We've never really paid attention to it"

"Is it really that good?"

Diana gave a sigh of relief "Mere words can not hope to do it justice"

* * *

On her way to dinner Akko felt as though she was being watched. At first it was only a very slight feeling, however it increased as she got closer to the dining hall. When she was only a few meters away she spun around, determined to confront whoever was stalking her. She promptly came face to face with Hanna and Barbara.

"Did you see that? It bounced"

"Yeah, it did"

Neither of them appeared to be paying any attention to Akko herself and more to her hair. Akko was about to demand to know what they were doing but the words did in her throat when Hanna placed a hand on her tuft of hair and began to gently stroke it.

"Diana was right, it is really soft"

"Let me feel"

Barbara started to stroking the tuft as well, and gently ran her other hand over Akko's fringe.

"It's even softer than the rest of her hair"

When they were satisfied Hanna and Barbara walked away, leaving a very surprised Akko waiting for her friends.

* * *

"Akko, you're staring at Diana again" remarked Sucy, causing the table to burst into laughter.

"Was not! I was deep in thought and happened to be facing her general direction"

"And what were you so deep in thought about? Was it Diana?" Amanda teased, causing everyone to laugh again.

"Tell us Akko, how many kids do you want to have?" Sucy asked before continuing to laugh.

"Could you kindly refrain from causing a commotion and remember there are others in this room as well" Diana's voice killed the atmosphere immediately and replaced it with a most colder one which lasted for a few seconds even after she went back to her own table.

"Hey Akko...You're staring again!" 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for my absence guys


	12. Chapter 12

“Akko, there are many less painful ways of committing suicide” Sucy replied.

“But why? It’s only a little bit of advice, why won’t you tell me?” Akko whined.

Sucy sighed. “Akko, listen to me very closely. If anyone outside of our little group knew that you like Diana your life would be over in an instant. Also, Lotte and Diana are two very different people; Lotte is kind, sweet, innocent, in other words she’s Diana’s complete opposite”

"Diana is kind and innocent too!"

"Look, my point is what I did with Lotte probably won't work with Diana" Sucy paused for a minute before grinning "That being said, I do have a potion that might help"

* * *

Diana turned around in her chair and looked at the door in her room. Had someone knocked on it just then? The second Diana went back to her work she heard that sound again. It was followed by many louder knocks and possibly even a kick or two. The British witch strode over to the door and flung it open, ready to give the girl who had made such a racket and earful about etiquette and being respectful to others.

"Akko. Why am I not surprised to see..." Diana trailed off. She had to be dreaming.

"You're going to laugh at me again, aren't you?"

Akko looked embarrassed and was covering her ears. But they weren't the ears she usually had. Instead, Akko was covering the large pair of rabbit ears that were on top of her head. They looked so...cute. Akko's nose had also been replaced by a rabbit's and occasionally it would twitch and snuffle. Akko was managing to look both pitiful and adorable at the same time and it was too much for Diana.

"I'm...No, I'm not going to laugh at you. I can see you appear to be in quite a distressing situation so please come in" It was when Akko was inside her room that Diana saw it. The tail. It looked like someone had stuck a large cotton ball to Akko, so Diana grabbed it, telling herself she was only doing it to validate it's authenticity and made sure a prank was not being played on her. Akko froze. For a few seconds she stood still, but then Akko turned around looking even more embarrassed.

"Diana...That tickles"

Diana let Akko's tail go with a twinge of regret, it really was soft.

"My apologies. Might I inquire as to why you are here?"

"Sucy did this to me and she won't change it back" Akko practically fell on Diana "Please Diana, you're the only person who can help me!"

Diana gently patted Akko's head. 

"Do not worry Akko, this kind of potion is relatively simple to undo. I will require a few minutes making a counter potion though, so please wait on my bed until I am finished"

Akko nodded and sat down on Diana's bed as instructed. Diana instantly began work on her potion.

"Akko...No, Atsuko Kagari"

"Y-yes!"

"Are you absolutely certain that you are not of magical descent?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Your eyes"

"What about my eyes?"

"Your eyes, they cast a spell on me"

The room then fell silent and stayed that way for much longer than Diana would have liked.

"...Was that meant to be a pick up line?"

"Did your soul not feel as though it were soaring through heaven?"

"Not really"

"Did your heart not feel that my words had set it on fire?"

"No"

Diana felt crushed. She had been rejected. The fact that it was Akko who had done so just added insult to injury.

"I see. The counter potion will finish brewing in half a minute's time so-"

"Hey Diana, what did you mean when you said you love me?"

Diana turned away, she wasn't going to let Akko see her embarrassed.

"I meant I truly love you, and everything about you; your passion, your determination, the way that little tuft of hair at the back of your head bounces as you skip. I love all of it. I want to be able to go on dates with you, I want to be able to sit next to you at meal times, I want to be able to hold hands when we walk to class together, I want to teach you how to fly, I want to be able to cuddle with you on rainy days! I want you to be mine, and only mine, forever"

Akko felt as though she were on cloud nine; Diana had sounded so sincere when she had said those things. It would be nice to hold hands with her, cuddling on rainy days sounded good and the thought of finally being able to fly was wonderful, made even better by the fact that it would be Diana teaching her. And so, without thinking Akko opened her mouth and said "I love you too"

Diana walked over to her bed, gently lifted Akko's chin and and pressed their lips together. Both of them felt as though time had stopped moving, and when they broke apart they looked at each other lovingly before Diana pulled Akko in for a second kiss.

* * *

Barbara took a deep breath and told herself that she would be fine; she had seen Sucy leave two minutes ago so there was no risk of running into her. She reached forward and rapped her knuckles on the door three times.

Lotte opened the door and looked a little surprised to see Barbara standing there.

"Hello...Barbara...Do you need something?"

"Lotte, I'm begging you, please give me some advice!"

"Advice? I can help you with faeries if you're having difficulty summoning them, or maybe if you need-"

"Advice about Hanna"

"Hanna?"

"You know, about stuff like dating..."

"...Please come in"

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

“Is no one actually going to talk about the elephant in the room?” Asked Sucy.

“I’d say it’s more the elephant at the table” Amanda replied.

The two then turned to look at Diana, who was doing her best to appear unfazed by their comments.

“Is something the matter?” Diana asked calmly.

Sucy and Amanda stared at her. "You have got to be joking"

"You literally told us you're dating a girl who you and your cronies have badmouthed ever since she got here. Of course there's something wrong"

"I was merely being as realistic as you two were, I fail to see why I should be scrutinized for what merely amounts to trying to prevent Akko from disappointing herself in the future"

“How did you fall in love with her?” Asked Amanda.

“Akko is truly...Captivating. Her passion and dedication to achieving her dream is what first made me interested in her, but the more I observed her the more I discovered just how adorable she is, falling in love with her must have been inevitable” At that, Akko smiled happily and slipped her hand into Diana's.

Breakfast ended soon after that so Sucy and Amanda were forced to abandon their questioning and get to their first lesson of the day.

* * *

 

By lunch the green and red teams had more or less come to terms with the fact that Akko was somehow dating the most popular girl at Luna Nova, and were glad that she had found someone who made her happy. On the other hand, Hanna and Barbara would have made Akko go through an extreme version of what Sucy and Amanda had done to Diana that morning, had Diana not been sat right next to Akko. 

After spending some time watching Akko and Diana Barbara quietly excused herself and left the dining hall; whenever she looked at them she felt...Jealous? Perhaps jealous was too strong a word but she still felt at least slightly wistful when she saw those two. Or Sucy and Lotte. Or even the green team. They were all able to be honest with each other, they could all hold hands, cuddle, even kiss whenever they wanted it was only her and Barbara that couldn't. She made her way to the library and after checking that there was no-one who knew her she picked up one of the earlier volumes of Nightfall and began to read.

* * *

 

Hanna didn't know what had happened; one minute Barbara was sitting next to her, the next minute she had disappeared without a trace. Hanna frantically thought of where Barbara could have gone, and why she would leave without telling her? 

"Um, Hanna"

Hanna turned to look at who ever had said her name.

"What do you want Lotte?"

"Barbara said she was going to the library, i-if you're wondering where she is"

"I see...Thank you"

Hanna left the cafeteria puzzled, nothing Barbara was doing made any sense. Soon enough Hanna was standing outside the library, thinking about what she would say to Barbara. Maybe Barbara wanted to be away from her, after all she hadn't told Hanna where she was going. Hanna took a deep breath and strode in. She couldn't see Barbara anywhere.

Hanna walked further in and began to start searching for her girlfriend. After about five minutes of looking she finally found her; Barbara was sat alone at a table happily reading a book. Hanna tiptoed over to Barbara as quietly as she could so as not to be seen, and then pulled her into a hug. Barbara screamed in surprise and jumped out of her chair before turning around with a terrified expression on her face.

"Whoa Barbara, are you okay?"

"Ha...Hanna, you surprised me"

"Sorry about that, I didn't think you'd be so engrossed in your book" At that comment Barbara moved her book so Hanna couldn't see the title "But, uh, how come you left without a word back there? I know it sounds stupid, but I was a little worried"

"I said that I was going to the library though..."

Hanna thought back to what was happening a few minutes ago in the dining hall; she hadn't really been paying attention to anything going on around her, instead she had been wondering just what made Diana fall for that dunce Akko.

"Oh God, I'm sorry, I must have been zoned out and-"

"It's fine, I should have properly told you"

Barbara sat down and Hanna moved the seat closest to it so they were touching. "What are you reading then?"

"Oh just a book I grabbed, I just picked it at random so-"

"Are you enjoying it?"

"Y-yeah, it's good"

"Hey Barbara, can we hold hands?"

"You...You don't have to ask me to do things like that, I always like it when we get to cuddle, or k-kiss"

Barbara gasped as she was suddenly pulled into a hug.

"Really? You really mean it?"

"Of course I do Hanna, I love you!"

"Thank goodness" Hanna whispered to herself as she pulled Barbara in closer.

"You know, I thought that maybe you didn't want to do any of those things-"

"What! Why?"

"Well you were always saying that they were just so we would know what they would feel like and we never actually went on any proper dates"  


"...I thought that you wouldn't want to do them if I said it was because I love you, I felt bad about it because I thought I was forcing you to do those things"

"Hanna..."

"Barbara..."

The two girls smiled and started to laugh at how silly they had been until they remembered that they were in a library, and promptly sealed their lips. Then the two came together and allowed their lips to meet. They spent almost all of the remaining lunch break kissing, leaving them only a couple of minutes to get back to Diana before afternoon classes started. When they got back to her they found she was still with the red and green teams, who gave them various knowing looks and remarked upon their flushed faces and untidy hair to Hanna and Barbara's embarrassment. But it was all done in good taste and the two wouldn't have changed anything they had done because of the slight teasing.

 

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

“So Akko, just saying ‘Tia Freyre’ isn’t enough, you have to be commanding your broom to fly while keeping in that position I showed you”

“T-tia freyre!” Akko shouted, to no avail; the broom stayed as it was and Diana sighed.

“Akko, you have to make sure you’re completely concentrating on getting your broom to do what you’re telling it, don’t let anything distract you”

Don’t let anything distract you.  _ Don’t let anything distract you. _ That was easy for Diana to say, she wasn’t the one who had her girlfriend pressed against her back, whispering into her ear. Oh God, she was hugging her now. Diana’s hands gently guided Akko’s to the correct places on the broom before returning her hands to their place of Akko’s waist.

“Tia...Tia freyre, tia freyre!” Akko tried again, only to be met with the same result. After one last desperate "Tia freyre" Akko hung her head in defeat while Diana gently hugged her.

“Don’t worry Akko, I’m sure that you’ll be able to fly perfectly in time”

“Really?”

“Of course” Akko smiled and leaned back into Diana’s chest “And in the mean time I’d be more than happy to let you fly with me if you want to go somewhere…”

"Thanks Diana, I love you!"

* * *

 

Amanda groaned "Constanze, none of the teachers understand!" before collapsing next to her and pulling the smaller girl into a hug.

“Hmm?”

“It’s terrible! Even professor Nelson doesn’t get me, she keeps on saying stuff like ‘Amanda, what you do isn’t safe and doesn’t count towards your final grade’ and ‘You’d be better off postponing these silly antics until you’ve left school’, she's forgotten what it's like to be cooped up inside all day"

"Mhmm"

"I really don't know what I'd do if you and Jasminka weren't here"

"Mmm"

"But when professor Finneran has the nerve to say-" Amanda was suddenly cut off by Constanze pressing her lips against hers, and she didn't move for several seconds after, trying to take in what had just happened. "Thanks Constanze, you're wonderful"

The smaller girl blushed and returned to the circuit she was soldering, but didn't try to push Amanda away when she hugged her again.

* * *

 

Akko walked into the red team’s room, humming happily.

“So how did it go Akko?” Lotte asked, glad to see her friend in such high spirits.

“I couldn’t get off the ground! But Diana was really nice about it and she said she’d help me whenever I wanted”

“I see...That sounds” Lotte searched for the right thing to say “Very kind of her”

“I know right! Diana’s an amazing teacher"

"She certainly seemed to favor a 'hands on' method" Sucy commented, not looking up from her book.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It looked less like a tutoring session and more like you two were flirting the entire time"

"We weren't flirting! I mean, we were a little, but not for the entire session, there was only that little bit where Diana..." Akko trailed off looking embarrassed at the thought of telling Lotte and Sucy what she had done with Diana.

* * *

 

"Constanze, want one?" Jasminka held out a bag of brightly colored lolipops to her teammate who took a pink one, unwrapped it, mumbled a couple of words of thanks and popped it in her mouth before returning to the robot she was making. Jasminka watched as Constanze configured and dismantled a circuit with her wand several times before she finally slotted it into the metal shell she had made and cast a spell on it. Constanze plugged it into the DVD player she had made and after testing it several times placed it in a cardboard box she had written 'Projector' on. 

"Did your old projector break Constanze?"

"Mhmm"

"Do you know why?"

Constanze shook her head and began to pack away the spare materials scattered on her desk before doing the same with her tools.

"I got the new John Wick movie in the mail today, do you want to watch it after dinner?"

At the mention of a new film to watch Constanze's face lit up and she hugged Jasminka as tight as she could while the Russian girl smiled and patted her roommate's head.

* * *

 

"Is Constanze ready?"

"She's showering right now, she should be done in about five minutes"

"I'll get the popcorn on in a minute then, do you want sweet or salty?"

"Constanze likes it slightly sweet, so lets go with that" 

"Sounds good" Jasminka grabbed a couple of bags of popcorn from under her bed and put them in the microwave before settling back down next to Amanda, who nonchalantly put an arm around her.

"What are we watching tonight then?"

"John Wick 2, Constanze liked the first one"

"John Wick...Was that the one with explosions?"

"All the movies Constanze likes have explosions"

"I know right" Amanda chuckled "She's so cute when she gets really into a movie...Still, you're every bit as cute as her"

"Amanda..."

The two leaned closer together. Their hands met, their eyes closed...They jumped apart in surprise when both bags of popcorn began to pop at the same time. After a few seconds they realized what had happened and started to laugh at how silly they had been before they sat back down together. 

Constanze walked in, already wearing her pajamas and settled down in between Amanda and Jasminka who put their arms around her and made themselves comfortable as the movie began.


	15. Chapter 15

“Whoa...This place is beautiful!” Akko exclaimed as she took in the view of the school and it’s grounds.

"Indeed, in that way it is just like you" Diana said as she placed the bag of clothes on the floor next to the armchair.

"Aww Diana" Akko hugged her girlfriend happily "So how did you find this place?"

"I was looking for a place that would allow me to observe stars in the southern hemisphere on rainy nights as the open air facility provided by the school has inadequate, and so, after a bit of searching I happened across this room. I then began to discover it was better than the facility provided by the school and eventually started to fashion it into a second dorm room of sorts...But Akko, what exactly do you think you are doing? I told you that we would study for half an hour before engaging in these kinds of activities”

“Aww, you make them sound so bad when you say it like that, but you like cuddling, don’t you?”

“O-of course I do, but we came here to work, and work we shall, so open your books, I’m not going to pause every two minutes”

“Okay then”

“A-at the same time, I won’t be too harsh” Diana stuttered and pulled huge, leather armchair over to the window with a simple spell before patting her lap, indicating for Akko to sit there. Akko happily jumped onto Diana’s lap and allowed herself to be pulled closer to her girlfriend, before opening her notebook and getting ready to take notes. Diana cleared her throat. “Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri” She said while pointing at each of them “Are the three brightest stars in the night sky. Sirius is the most prominent star in the Canis Major constellation, and it was used by the Polynesians for navigating during winter. Canopus belongs to the constellation of Carina, which was a part of the greater constellation Argo Navis. Alpha Centauri is actually a star system consisting of three stars, with the two main stars, Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, forming the brightest star in the Centaurus constellation. Did you get all that?”

“Yeah”

“Excellent. Sirius can be a useful star when one wishes to learn about things such as wealth and fortune, especially if one expects a positive outcome in any event regarding those two factors” Diana continued to talk for much longer than she had intended and it was only when her girlfriend slumped against her that she realized just what she had done. Diana cast a spell that created a small ball of dim light, and she used it to illuminate the face of the grandfather clock that stood in the corner of the room; it was seven minutes past midnight and Diana was horrified that she had kept Akko up so late when they had lessons the next day so she pulled the thick, woolen blanket off the back of the chair and wrapped it around them. Akko looked incredibly sweet when she was asleep, so Diana gently planted a kiss on her cheek before whispering “Goodnight, Akko” and closing her eyes.

* * *

 

The next morning Diana woke up at ten minutes to six and at first, didn't remember where she was, but when she did something else dawned on her. They had done  _ that _ , and because they had done  _ that _ they would have to deal with one of  _ those. _  Would Akko know? Of course not, Diana had only come across that knowledge by reading some rare tomes she had found in her family's personal library; Akko would be clueless when it came to issues such as that.

Obviously, she would need to talk to Akko about  _ that _ , but for the time being she would let Akko sleep a bit more. It was still very early in the morning for her girlfriend, and Akko looked so cute when she was asleep Diana felt incredibly jealous of Lotte and Sucy getting to see Akko's sleeping face every day.

Akko woke up almost an hour later and stretched as much as she could before snuggling up to Diana.

"Ah, good morning Akko, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I slept great, you?"

"I feel a bit stiff, but last night was generally enjoyable"

"So what time is...Holy crap, I have to get back to my room before Lotte and Sucy notice I'm gone!" 

Akko got changed frantically while Diana put on her uniform in a more graceful manner and neatly folded her nightwear. Once Akko had stuffed her pajamas into her bag she got ready to run back to her room but was stopped by Diana, who quickly kissed her on the lips.

"May I join you for breakfast this morning?"

"You don't have to ask Diana, we're going out. But yes, I'd love to eat breakfast with you"

Akko sped off and Diana smiled; she really loved Akko.

* * *

 

The blue team was a little late to breakfast, but there was still plenty of time left so no-one really minded. For the most part breakfast was a timid affair, there were no fights or arguments, and the atmosphere was relatively subdued.

The only notable event occurred right after Akko declared that she was not hungry and went to dispose of half the food on her plate; she was pulled down by Diana and firmly told "Akko, you can't just eat that little"

Akko, confused, responded "I'm not hungry though"

"That's not the point Akko, your body doesn't belong to just you anymore"

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"Akko...This may not be the best place to say this, but you're pregnant"

Amanda choked on her drink, spat it out and began to violently cough as the table turned to look at Diana in shock.


	16. Chapter 16

Pregnant. How? How had that happened? Akko tried to think, but it was impossible. There was simply no way she could be pregnant. But at the same time...Diana had proved that she was not above doing things behind other people’s backs without their consent, but a child? That was going too far, Diana wouldn’t do that without asking Akko beforehand.

“Akko”

“Argh! What is it Sucy?”

“Show me your stomach”

“...I’m sorry, what?”

Sucy shoved her wand under Akko’s shirt and the brunette squealed at the cold metal touching her skin. The witch cast a spell and listened intently for a few seconds before drawing away and sighing in relief.

“You’re not pregnant Akko”

“How do you know?”

“I used a spell used to check for faint signs of life, and there were none in you” Sucy turned around looking mildly interested “Now Diana, you’re going to explain why you just said what you did”

Rather than telling her shocked friends and teammates Diana instead asked “What was that spell you just used?”

“Don’t try and change the su-”

“Please, I need to know now!”

“...Ukufuna Ukuphila Encinane”

Diana hurriedly cast the spell on herself and looked both relieved and disappointed when she delivered the verdict “I’m...Not carrying a child either”

“That’s excellent, now tell us why you thought Akko was”

“When I was seven years old my parents spent the summer in one of our holiday homes in the south of France, naturally, since I didn’t speak a word of French at that time I was unable to socialize and spent a considerable amount of time in the library where-”

“Get to the point already”

“I read that if two people who love each other sleep together a child will be made”

To say all hell broke loose at that moment would be an understatement; Lotte went bright red and turned away in embarrassment, Hanna and Barbara let out cries of dismay, and Jasminka and Amanda covered Constanze’s ears as fast as they could.

“Diana” Sucy moved in between Diana and Akko “Just what did you do to Akko last night?”

“I just told you, I slept with her”

“Diana...Can you please explain what you mean by that? Leave no detail out”

“But when I tried to tell you the details in my other story you cut me short”

“Just do it!”

“Very well. Akko and myself arranged a rendez vous in a room I discovered a while ago so I could help tutor her in astronomy, but I ended up talking much longer than I intended and at some point Akko fell asleep on my lap. I didn’t want to wake her up so I slept there as well. Will that do or would you like me to tell you about the exact constellations we studied and completely analyze each word I said to her?”

“You’re insufferable when you’re not being snarky, don’t make yourself even worse. Anyway, I think I know where the misunderstanding came from”

“So neither of us are pregnant?”

Sucy looked back and saw Akko appeared as bamboozled as Diana, and sighed.

“Hanna, Barbara, teach these two about the birds and the bees before our first lesson” Sucy commanded before taking Lotte by her hand and leaving the dining hall, looking and feeling thoroughly exhausted.

“Wait what! You expect us to tell them about that?” Hanna shouted after them, before turning to face Barbara with a look of dread on her face “Do we actually have to explain those things to them?”

“Oh goodness...There’s no way I could tell Diana about something so indecent” Barbara replied, her voice barely audible.

“For God’s sake, if you two idiots can’t do I will, just to get it over with” Amanda declared “Akko, Diana, it’s time for...The talk”

“The talk?”

“Just come with me!”

Ten minutes later the trio entered the cafeteria again looking visibly changed; Diana was blushing and avoided looking at anyone, Akko appeared to be shellshocked and had a dazed expression on her face and Amanda looked like the guiltiest person on earth.

“Well…”

“That was...Something”

* * *

 

Lunch proved to be a very awkward affair as neither Akko nor Diana could bring themselves to look at Amanda, and they kept their heads down for the most part, meaning it was up to their friends to attempt to restore the peaceful mood that had existed before Diana’s announcement earlier that morning.

“Amanda, are you doing anything over the holidays?” Lotte asked, preparing to draw everyone into the conversation.

“The holidays...I’m not sure, I’ll probably just stay at school, what about you Lotte?”

“Well I was thinking of going back home and seeing my mom”

“Nice, nice. What about you Sucy?”

“I was thinking about going with her”

“Ooh, how come?”

“Well” Lotte replied “It started off when I told Sucy I wanted to spend the holidays with her, but my mom wanted to see me. So rather than split my time between them Sucy suggested that I take her home to meet my family”

“That’s pretty daring of you Lotte”

“I’ve told my mom in advance and she says she’s looking forward to meeting Sucy”

“Sounds great, are you doing anything Akko?”

“Me? I don’t know, my parents have been saying they want to see me but it’s gonna be really expensive to get back and I don’t have the money on me”

"Akko, i-if you want I can give you the money to see your parents"

"Thanks Diana, I'm really grateful but...It would just be wrong to take money from you like that"

"If that's the case then I could go with you, I would like to meet your parents myself and get to know them so in the future the chances of them objecting to us progressing with our relationship are greatly decreased"

"In that case I'll tell them I'm bringing you home this evening, thanks Diana!"

Akko wrapped her arms around Diana, who quickly planted a kiss on her girlfriend's forehead.

“I love you Akko”

“I love you too”

"Whoa whoa lovebirds, remember where you are for a minute" said Amanda, causing the two to blush heavily and pull apart. 

The awkward atmosphere from the morning had vanished by then and almost everyone had forgotten about Diana's mistake, although Amanda would use it in the future to tease her occasionally.


	17. Chapter 17

In the two weeks before the holidays and Akko found herself being pushed more than ever, not only Ursula wanted to tutor her but pretty much every teacher in the school (except professors Finneran and Holbrooke) seemed to be paying special attention to her. That initially made Akko happy, until she learned from Sucy they were doing it to raise the average grade in their class and increase their bonus. Akko went back to only being tutored by professor Ursula soon after.

Surprisingly, Akko managed to scrape passes in all of her subjects along with a couple of good marks here and there, this was celebrated by Akko goofing off until the last day of term, when she discovered she had to pack a couple of bags for her trip home. After one stress filled trip to recover some of the clothes she had sent to be washed Akko packed a bag with her PJs, a change of underwear, and some casual clothes along with some toiletries. She stuffed the second one with snacks until it was almost bursting at the seams.

The final thing Akko had to do that night was arrange a time to leave the following morning, and after some discussion they agreed to leave at half nine, although Akko thought it was too late and Diana thought it was too early.

* * *

The next morning the two girls got up early and were able to enjoy breakfast in a near empty dining hall, which allowed them to be more intimate than usual; they cuddled a little. Once that was over with they made sure that everything they needed was packed, and Akko reluctantly removed the assorted junk food she had shoved into her bag to make room for her books and homework she would have to get cracking on at some point (Diana had promised to help her though, so it wasn't too bad). 

A few minutes after Akko had packed her bags and was making sure that she wasn't going to leave anything behind Lotte woke up and got dressed. Since she wanted to say a proper goodbye to Akko she wanted Sucy to be there too, but that created a challenge; waking her girlfriend up. After spending much longer than she would have liked gently coaxing and cuddling Sucy, Lotte had managed to convince her to get dressed and see Akko and Diana off.

Thankfully, Akko had left her two teammates a note telling them she'd be in the courtyard with Diana until about quarter-past, so Lotte and Sucy were able to go get breakfast without having to worry about missing their friends. About halfway through their breakfast they were joined by the green team, who looked like they had gotten varied amounts of sleep the previous night; Jasminka looked perfectly fine, Constanze less so, she had dark rings under her eyes and her hair still needed brushing, Amanda was the worst of the three, her shirt was buttoned up incorrectly, she could barely keep her eyes open and she practically collapsed onto the table after getting herself a mug of coffee. Jasminka began to gently brush Constanze's hair while one of the German witch's robots added cream and sugar cubes to Amanda's coffee.

"What happened to you guys, you look terrible?" Sucy asked.

"We wanted to celebrate the end of term" Amanda replied, sounding like she was in considerable "So we marathoned a bunch of movies last night. Big mistake"

"Amanda ate a bunch of chocolate then tried to down an entire two liter bottle of coke last night and ended up with such a bad stomach ache she only got three hours of sleep" Constanze held up two fingers and Jasminka corrected herself quickly "Sorry, only two hours of sleep, thanks Constanze"

"Mhmm" The smaller girl nodded and began to tuck in to her own breakfast, not bothering to remove her mechanic's gloves.

* * *

 

After they were done with breakfast the green team along with Lotte and Sucy made their way to the courtyard where they found Hanna and Barbara hugging Diana. When the two broke away from the leader of the blue team they mumbled "Goodbye" to Akko and left for the portal. Once the two were well on their way Lotte threw her arms around Akko and pulled Sucy into their hug. When Lotte and Sucy let go of Akko she was quickly pulled into a much tighter one by the green team.

After they let go of her Amanda simply said "Hey Diana, make sure to take care of Akko, 'kay?" 

Diana smiled "You have my word Amanda O'Neill"

Satisfied Akko would be in good hands Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka left the red team and Diana alone in the courtyard.

"Well Akko, make sure to have fun on your holiday, but at the same time stay safe...And don't forget to do your homework either, you know professor Finneran will throw a fit if you-"

"C'mon Lotte, Akko knows all of that already, but yeah, stay safe and all that, I don't want to have to replace my favorite Lab Rat"

"Sucy!"

"Well Akko, shall we depart?"

"Yeah!"

* * *

In front of the portal Diana mounted her broom, then motioned for Akko to get on in front of her. Once her girlfriend was sitting tight Diana shouted "Tia Freyre!" and flew into the portal. 

During their flight through it Akko noticed Diana was holding her much tighter than earlier, so she placed a hand over hers to reassure her that she would be fine. Diana's grip eased up slightly after that.

When they emerged from the portal only a few meters in front of Akko's house Akko thought they would dismount, but Diana kept flying at it, only pulling back at the last minute to dismount and catch Akko in a princess carry.

It was then Akko noticed something in her pocket. Something that felt very much like a letter she thought she had sent.

 

 


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry this chapter is so late, I wasn't sure how to write Lotte's mother but I hope this is okay, please leave feedback

“Damn Lotte, you didn’t mention Finland was going to be this cold” Sucy said, her teeth chattering. “Don’t worry Sucy, we’re only a couple of minutes away from my mom’s house so we won’t get frostbite or anything”

Lotte took one of Sucy’s hands in hers and began to lead her girlfriend down several streets until they were in the town’s centre. From there Lotte led Sucy around the back of one of the shops, checked to make sure there was no one watching her, took a key from under a potted plant and let them into her house. Lotte kicked off her shoes in the entrance and shouted “Mom, we’re here” before walking further into the house.

They made their way through the house and into the shop that was attached to it where they found a woman who looked like an older and more laid back version of Lotte sitting behind the counter, working on some sort of music box. She stopped a couple of seconds later and turned to face the girls before happily exclaiming “It’s so good to see you again Lotte!” and pulling her into a hug.

“It’s good to see you too mom”  They stayed like that for a few seconds before Lotte pulled away from her and stepped aside, fidgeting slightly “So...Mom, this is Sucy Manbavaran, the girl I told you about in my letters”

Ordinarily Sucy didn’t like being put on the spot, but Lotte and her mother were different; Sucy could practically feel a warm and welcoming aura coming from Mrs Yanson and she felt a little more at ease because of that.

“It’s very nice to finally meet you, Mrs Yanson”

“Likewise, recently my daughter’s letters have included so much about you I’ve been dying to finally see you in person”

“Oh mom, there are a few things I need to take care of in my room so can you keep Sucy company for a few minutes?”

Mrs Yanson nodded and Lotte left to try and hide some of her less socially acceptable Nightfall merchandise from Sucy.

“So Sucy, I understand you and my daughter are dating”

“Yeah, we’ve been going out for a while”

“Well” Lotte’s mother sounded excited “Tell me all about it”

“I don’t know when I started to get a crush on her, at first it just started with me thinking she looked cute whenever she talked about Nightfall, but after a while I started to notice other things about her, like the way her eyes will light up when she gets to the climax of the book she’s reading, or how she looks out for our roommate when she comes up with a crazy scheme and makes sure nothing too bad happens to her" Sucy sighed "I guess I fell for her because she’s perfect”

“So who confessed?”

“I did, in the library. Looking back on it though, it probably wasn’t the smartest choice I’ve made”

“What makes you say that?”

“I read a couple of volumes of Nightfall and, I dunno, after seeing how much Lotte likes them I feel like I should have tried to recreate one of the scenes in it when I confessed”

“Aww, you're so sweet! But don't worry, I'm sure Lotte loved every second of your confession"

* * *

 

Lotte surveyed her room one last time, making sure that what she wanted to stay hidden would remain that way, before she went to the spare room and grabbed a couple of pillows and a blanket which she threw on her bed. Satisfied that everything was the way she wanted it Lotte went back downstairs to go get Sucy. She found her girlfriend talking with her mother, and blushed slightly when she heard they were talking about her. When she arrived it sounded like they were wrapping their conversation up and after Mrs Yanson thanked Sucy for taking care of her daughter Lotte made her appearance.

"I've finished cleaning up so do you want to see where we'll be sleeping tonight Sucy?"

"Okay, thanks for the advice Mrs Yanson"

As they left Lotte's mother called "The pleasure's all mine Sucy" before returning to the music box she had been fixing.

On the way up to Lotte's room the Finnish girl stammered "It gets really cold at night when the fire goes out so I was thinking we could share my bed for as long as we're here, if that's okay with you"

Sucy smiled and replied "That sounds wonderful Lotte"

As her questionable Nightfall merchandise was safely hidden away Lotte was able to show Sucy her room without any awkwardness, and Sucy was impressed by Lotte's collection of magic books on the repair of magical artifacts, along with her significantly larger collection of first edition Nightfall books. After Lotte showed Sucy around the rest of her house they returned to her room and spent a couple of hours chatting and reading on Lotte's bed, going undisturbed for the most part except when Mrs Yanson came to bring them a plate of freshly made cookies.

At about six thirty Lotte got up from her bed, stretched and told Sucy that she needed to go help her mother make dinner and left after kissing her on the cheek, so for almost an hour Sucy was on her own. When Lotte returned she threw herself down next to Sucy and put her arms around her. They laid there for a few minutes until Lotte's mother shouted "Girls, it's time for dinner!"

Dinner was an enjoyable affair, with a wide variety of foods being served ranging from pork sausages to fried mushrooms, at points during the meal Sucy felt like Lotte was watching her intently, but she dismissed it as Lotte being nervous about bringing her girlfriend around for the first time. Dessert was Pulla with coffee, which Sucy liked more than she thought she would. 

* * *

"Hey Lotte"

"Yes Sucy?"

"Dinner was wonderful, thank you"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"You made it, right?"

"...How did you know?"

"You kept watching me whenever I ate something, and there was a bunch of mushrooms"

"Did you like what I made?"

"I loved everything, and I can't wait to eat your cooking everyday"

As Lotte blushed Sucy wrapped her arms around Lotte and pulled her as close to her as possible so their faces were almost touching and they didn't have to strain their necks when they leaned in to kiss each other. When they finally stopped Lotte took her glasses off and put them on her bedside table before returning to Sucy and nuzzling her chest.

"Sucy, I love you"

"And I love you too Lotte"

 


	19. Chapter 19

Akko felt like the letter was going to burn a hole in her pocket and she could only think of how badly she had messed up; telling her parents about Diana on the spot would have been awkward enough, but they would be home for almost two weeks. That meant almost two weeks of embarrassment for her and her girlfriend. How on earth had she managed to screw up that badly?

Oh no. Diana had just lowered Akko onto her feet. She was going to press the doorbell. Life as she knew it was over.

Akko waited.

She felt Diana gently take her hand.

The door opened.

“Welcome home Akko! Ah, you must be Diana, please come in”

Wait. Had she heard that correctly? Her parents knew who Diana was? How? Akko shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled the letter out before tearing the envelope open and unfolding it. Instantly she breathed a sigh of relief; it was just a letter from Lotte telling her to enjoy her holiday, and it was signed by Sucy and the green team as well. Lotte must have slipped it into Akko's pocket last night thinking she would miss her the next morning. 

Since that potential hurdle had now been cleared all Akko had to do was make sure her parents liked Diana, which would probably be quick and easy, but she would have to choose the right moment to talk about their relationship in detail and that moment was not now. In the entrance of her house Akko kicked off her shoes and got herself and Diana a pair of slippers. After Akko spent a couple of minutes catching up with her parents she excused herself and took Diana up to her room.

* * *

 

The second Diana set foot in Akko’s room she was overwhelmed, no, almost suffocated by the amount of Shiny Chariot merchandise that cluttered it; the walls were covered in wall scrolls and posters, her desk was almost groaning under the weight of the Chariot figurines, nendoroids and action figures, and more assorted Chariot goods filled her bookshelf and part of her closet.

“This is...quite something”

“I know right, it took me ages to get all of these!” Akko said excitedly before pointing to a figure that stood at almost a foot tall “This one is my favorite though, don’t you think she looks amazing?” Akko was right, it was amazing; the figure was of Chariot flying on her broomstick, waving to her fans.

It was then that Diana’s gaze fell on something hidden behind a couple of small, empty cardboard boxes. She reached behind them and pulled it out from under a black bag with something heavy in it, before brushing off the layer of dust that had started to pile up on it. Just as she had thought, it was a photo of a much younger Akko wearing a witch hat and holding a plastic wand in Chariot’s arms.

“Ah, I was wondering where that had gotten to” Akko’s voice made Diana jump as she felt that she had seen something she wasn’t meant to “This is the time I got to have my photo taken with Chariot after one of her shows, it was awesome!” Akko stared into space as she remembered Chariot’s magic and how awestruck she had been ten years ago for a few seconds.

Diana pretended not to notice that Akko had gotten closer to her, and put an arm around her girlfriend's waist nonchalantly to pull them closer together. They were incredibly close to each other; Diana could smell Akko's hair. All she had to do was turn her head and she would be able to kiss Akko.

She was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

Diana's felt her heart leap in her chest, she had completely forgotten Akko's parents. In the half second she had before Akko's mother entered the room Diana let go of Akko and put a little bit of distance between them.

"Girls, I brought you some tea and snacks"

"Thanks mom" Akko spun around to take the tray out of her mother's hands, and, in doing so passed her the photo.

"I haven't seen this in a while" Akko's mother said to no one in particular, before smiling "This really brings memories back...I remember how excited you were when you got your photo taken with her, you almost couldn't get to sleep that night, and then you spent the rest of the weekend dressed as Chariot" 

"M-mom, you don't have to bring that up!"

"Why not? You were adorable back then. Diana, do you want to see some photos of Akko when she was younger?"

"...Please show me all of them"

* * *

 

"Jeez Diana, I can't believe you spent half an hour going through that photo album with mom!"

"I wanted to see what you were like when you were younger"

"If you wanted that you could have just asked me, there was no reason to involve mom and get the embarrassing backstories to all of those pictures as well"

"What do you mean embarrassing? The story about how you tried to get your kitten down from a tree before getting stuck up there yourself showed just how determined you were to help others at a young age"

"Now you're just mocking me!"

Akko threw herself onto Diana and pinned her to the ground. Akko went in for a kiss. Diana closed her eyes. Suddenly Diana's eyes snapped open and she desperately tried to throw Akko off her, but to no avail; Akko's surprise tickle attack had made her arms and legs near useless and she could only flail them about as she laughed uncontrollably. When Diana managed to roll over onto her stomach Akko fully took advantage of her position and mercilessly assaulted her girlfriend's sides for close to a minute. Eventually, Diana rolled onto her back again, looking completely exhausted and breathing heavily.

"Akko..."

Diana's face was flushed, her mouth slightly open, there was no way Akko could hold back. She let Diana put her arms around her neck and gently pull her into a long, passionate round of kissing. Akko rolled off Diana a few minutes later but was immediately pulled into a hug by her girlfriend and she happily returned it, enjoying the feeling of Diana's warm body against her. 

Akko giggled "Diana, your makeup is smudged"

"Your hair is tangled Akko"

"Want to go clean up before dinner?" Akko asked, letting go of Diana and sitting up.  Diana responded by dragging Akko back down so she was spooning her with her face buried in the crook of Akko's neck.

"Lets stay like this for just a bit longer"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for the delay with this chapter, also the next chapter will be the last one, thanks for sticking with me all this way


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here it is everybody, the end of this particular story. Thanks to everyone who read this, left kudos and commented, you're the reason I was able to finish this

“Akko...Hey Akko” Diana whispered, hoping her girlfriend hadn’t already drifted off to sleep.

“Hmm? What is it Diana?”

“I-I just wanted to talk, is that okay?”

“Of course it is!” Akko readjusted herself so she was sitting up, and Diana did the same “What do you want to talk about?”

“Earlier with your parents...Did I do well? Do you think they liked me? I know I wasn't exactly at my best during dinner”

“Of course you did, I’m sure they loved you”

“It’s just...What if they don’t accept our relationship? I know my parents won’t like it”

Akko put her arm around Diana’s shoulders and pulled her closer “Don’t worry Diana, I’ve never failed to convince my parents about anything, and I won’t stop now” With that Akko placed a kiss on Diana’s cheek.

“Thank you, Akko” Diana rested her head on Akko’s shoulder and closed her eyes, enjoying her warmth and the smell of her hair. Akko smiled and pulled her blanket further up the bed so they were properly covered by it. Within minutes Diana was asleep, and soon after Akko began to drift off as well, wrapped around the one she loved.

* * *

 

The next morning Akko awoke with Diana's arms wrapped around her chest and was treated to the sight of her girlfriend's sleeping face. After checking her clock and seeing it had barely gone 6 Akko snuggled down in her bed and pulled Diana into a loving hug as she dozed off. A couple of hours later the girls properly woke up and after they cleaned up in the bathroom, made their way to the kitchen where Akko made them breakfast. Diana felt a little awkward that she couldn’t help her girlfriend with anything, but she forgot about it as soon as she began eating.

After breakfast Akko gave Diana a tour of the town, taking her everywhere from the park to the book shop where they briefly stopped so Diana could pick up a book on wind magic she hadn’t seen before.

When they got back Akko suggested they play a few rounds of the Shiny Chariot card game and Diana eagerly accepted. Although she had significantly improved from when Akko had first taught her to play Diana still found herself losing easily to her girlfriend who would giggle as she tore through her defenses. Fortunately, they stopped playing before Diana’s pride suffered any further wounds.

* * *

 

When it was time for lunch Diana insisted she help Akko in some way, and eventually after a considerable amount of pestering Akko let her slice the vegetables. One cut later and Akko was having to give her girlfriend a crash course in cooking, starting from the absolute basics.

Needless to say, when lunch was eventually prepared in twice the time it should have taken the girls -at least Diana- felt quite a sense of satisfaction at having made a meal together.

As for lunch itself, Diana enjoyed it immensely. To be precise, Diana enjoyed when she would ask Akko to pass her something out of reach and Akko would feed it to her before remarking how cute she looked.

That meal was significantly less awkward than dinner the previous night and Diana managed to make some small talk with Akko's parents, and by the end they were getting on quite nicely having already forgotten last night.

* * *

 

Some time in the afternoon -Diana guessed it must have been around 4- Akko and Diana were curled up on the sofa watching a recording of Chariot’s most iconic performance together; Akko was laid back against Diana with her head resting on her girlfriend’s chest and Diana had her arms wrapped around Akko’s stomach.

Although Akko had been to Chariot’s performance and watched the DVD many times she still got a little rush whenever she rewatched that particular performance. Diana on the other hand was completely transfixed by the performance, it had been more than ten years since she had seen Chariot’s performance and she was delighted to finally be able to see it again, not that she let it show of course. 

Throughout the performance Akko talked to Diana about anything that popped into her head ranging from how incredible Chariot’s magic was to how much she loved Diana. After being told just how much Akko loved her for the fourth time that afternoon Diana’s guard had slipped quite substantially and she ended up murmuring something she would have rather not said.

“Akko, you’re so cute I want to be with you forever”. 

“Forever...You mean like getting married? Diana froze. Had she really just said that out loud? “Hey Diana, did you really mean it like that?”

“I…” Damn, she couldn’t say she was thinking out loud could she? That would be terrible of her. Well, thinking about it getting married to Akko would be great, they would always be able to sleep together, she would be able to eat Akko’s cooking everyday, they would be able to play the Shiny Chariot card game whenever they wanted…

“Diana, hey Diana, are you okay?”

“Oh yes, sorry I was just thinking about something” Diana took a couple of deep breaths “I know that we have only been a couple for a short period of time but...I love you, I love you so much I want to stay with you forever!”

“Diana!” Akko squealed as she threw her arms around her girlfriend and peppered her face with kisses for several minutes. When she finally stopped Akko pulled Diana into a tight hug and nuzzled her chest. “Hey Diana, I’d like to stay together forever as well”


End file.
